Via jobs.ac.uk. The Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester are offering a PhD Studentship on 'Cellular and Functional Changes in the Ageing Parathyroid Gland'. Supervised by Dr Donald Ward, the project is due to start in September/October 2009. Applicants should hold (or be about to obtain) a first or upper second class honours degree in a related area. Calcium regulates many physiological processes including secretion, vascular tone, synaptic transmission, gene expression and cell fate and thus its blood concentration must be controlled accurately throughout life. This project will employ bovine parathyroid gland and rodent thyroid/parathyroid complexes from young and old animals to investigate why parathyroid glands lose their extracellular calcium sensitivity with age. Then, parathyroid oxyphil cell function will be investigated to determine whether these cells affect PTH secretion. Applications are encouraged from students with a relevant biological sciences background.

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