Skip to main content

Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin

Trinity Menu Trinity Search



A PhD scholarship  available in the School of Natural Sciences

An excellent opportunity has opened up for a student with a background in animal biology or bioengineering, preferably having specialised in developmental biology, genetics, physiology, biomedical sciences or molecular biology.

The project title: The formation of mechanically robust tendons in the embryo: toward tendon engineering inspired by developmental biology.

The project has two main objectives:

  1. To identify mechanisms that drive late tendon development in the embryo and
  2. To apply this knowledge to the generation of mechanically robust tendons in vitro, toward tendon tissue reconstruction following injury or disease.

The approach will involve the use of gene editing techniques to test functional hypotheses in vivo and nanoparticle gene delivery to cultured tendon constructs.

The project is part of an international interdisciplinary collaboration between scientists specialising in developmental biologists, biomechanics, mechanobiology, nanomedicine, and materials science providing a unique opportunity to train at the forefront of Developmental Biology and Tissue Engineering.

The scholarship is available to start in March 2022. Interested candidates should contact Prof Paula Murphy (paula.murphy@tcd.ie) as soon as possible, providing a statement of interest and current CV.

The student will join the Developmental Biology research group, a dynamic group of postgraduate scholars in the School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, and the multidisciplinary, international project team.