Applications are invited for a Wellcome Trust 4 year PhD programme in Bioinformatics commencing October 2007 that has five places. This programme is run by the Centre for Bioinformatics and involves the Centre for Bioinformatics in the Division of Molecular Biosciences, the Departments of Chemistry, Computing, Mathematics, and the Medical School. The programme will provide an interdisciplinary training and applications are invited from students graduating from any biological, physical, computational or mathematical first degree course. We are particularly keen to encourage graduates from numerical and physical science first degree backgrounds to join the course.

The first year of the course will be closely based around the MSc in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology. Teaching is by experts in relevant fields within Imperial College, but also makes use of extensive collaborations with other researchers in the UK and beyond to bring in guest lecturers as required. In the first term, students are provided with the following compulsory elements: (i) Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (ii) Mathematics and Statistical Inference (iii) Computing (C++, PERL, JAVA) In addition, undergraduates who do not have a biological sciences first degree will attend appropriate lectures to provide them with the necessary background.

During the end of the first term and for the first half of the second term, areas in computational biology are addressed through a core module (Bioinformatics and Systems Biology II). Topics covered include protein sequence and structure; DNA and genome analysis; statistical genetics, networks and selected topics in computing.

The remainder of the first year will be spent in two projects (about three months each) embedded within research groups involved in the programme. Towards the end of the first year, students will identify their PhD project and the primary supervisor. The projects are theoretically based.

Application Requirements
Applicants must have or be expected to obtain at least an upper second degree from any biological, physical, computational or mathematical first degree course from a first class EU University or equivalent. We are very keen to encourage graduates from computer science/ statistics / mathematics / physics backgrounds to enrol for the course in addition to those trained in the biological sciences. For this programme, we will not consider lower degrees (2.2. or below) augmented by a Masters qualification. As the aim of the course is to promote discipline hopping, we cannot accept students who have already completed a Bioinformatics undergraduate or Masters degree. There are no facilities for part-time students on this programme.

Demonstration of cross-discipline aptitude is an advantage. The programme is open to all, including overseas students. There is an annual stipend (including London Allowance commences at £18,848 in year 1, is £19,791 in year 2 and £20,780 in years 3 and 4). This stipend is free of UK income tax. There is additional support for the research and conference travel. Note that the Wellcome Trust will pay UK / European Union student fees only. Overseas students will need to finance the additional costs

The closing date for applications is Tuesday 9 January 2007

For more information, please visit:
http://www.bioinformatics.ic.ac.uk/bio_mscphd.html