Via www.findaphd.com. The Faculty of Biomedical and Life Sciences at the University of Glasgow is offering a PhD studentship on "Developmental plasticity and phenotypic programming: from genes to behaviour". Stressful conditions during early life can influence many phenotypic traits, having detrimental effects on animal and human health in later life. Both pre- and post-natal developmental stages represent ‘sensitive’ periods during which physiological and behavioural systems can become programmed. However, very little is known about the potential interactive effects across developmental stages on phenotypic traits and gene expression. This project will take an integrative approach using microarray technology to determine how pre- and post-natal exposure to stress can interact to produce patterns of differential gene expression that underlie phenotypic plasticity and health in later life. Whilst the traditional view of developmental stress is one of purely detrimental effects in later life, the alternative adaptive view suggests that developmental responses phenotypically engineer the individual to maximise survival under future stressful conditions. One of the major assumptions of many of the current hypotheses put forward to explain these long-term programming effects of early life stress on health, is that a ‘mis-match’ between developmental and later environments causes these negative effects in humans and animal models. The project will test this hypothesis, using an avian model, by investigating the interactive effects of developmental stress on gene expression within the endocrine axis that regulates the stress response; the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and relate these data to behavioural and physiological health indices in stressful and stress free conditions. The inter-disciplinary nature of this project gives the opportunity to learn a range of skills including experimental design, microarray experimental and data analysis protocols, bioinformatics, radioimmunoassay, neurobiological techniques and behavioural assay. Applications should be sent to Dr Karen Spencer at k.spencer@bio.gla.ac.uk

Job advert