PhD Research Studentships
Molecularly-imprinted conductive polymer nanowire electrodes for the detection of prostate cancer biomarkers
| Supervisor: | Christopher CHAPMAN |
| Apply by: | 28 January 2026 |
| Start in: | September (Semester 1) |
Description
Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common malignancy in Western men. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a common target for the detection of PCa, however, it has low specificity in detecting clinically significant PCa. This leads to unnecessary biopsies, overdiagnosis, and even over-treatment for many men. Many non-invasive techniques have been developed to identify clinically significant PCa using techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Unfortunately, these techniques are costly and require hospital visits and/or trained medical staff, reducing the applicability to wide-spread early diagnosis. PSA is not the only prostate-specific marker. Many other protein markers exist, such as PSMA, and human kallikrein 2 (hK2), which are also significantly elevated in poor prognostic PCa but difficult to be accurately detected in plasma samples. This studentship proposes to develop multiplexed biosensor arrays to simultaneously detect multiple PCa markers, each with high sensitivity and specificity from a single patient sample. Utilising high surface area molecularly-imprinted conductive polymer nanowires, protein specific biosensor materials will be synthesised and used to fabricate electrochemical biosensors. Sensors will be validated using purified marker proteins spiked into female blood samples, and stored PCa patients and control plasma samples. Finally, plasma samples from patients with known PCa and healthy controls will be used to validate the sensing sensitivity and specificity of the multisensor array and results will be correlated with cancer status to for clinical value validation.
Funding
Funded by: China Scholarship CouncilCandidate will need to secure a CSC scholarship.
Under the scheme, Queen Mary will provide scholarships to cover all tuition fees, whilst the CSC will provide living expenses and one return flight ticket to successful applicants.
Eligibility
- The minimum requirement for this studentship opportunity is a good honours degree (minimum 2(i) honours or equivalent) or MSc/MRes in a relevant discipline.
- If English is not your first language, you will require a valid English certificate equivalent to IELTS 6.5+ overall with a minimum score of minimum score of 6.0 in each of Writing, Listening, Reading and Speaking).
- Candidates are expected to start in September (Semester 1).
Contact
For informal enquiries about this opportunity, please contact Christopher CHAPMAN.
Apply
Start an application for this studentship and for entry onto the PhD FT Medical Engineering full-time programme (Semester 1 / September start):
Please be sure to quote the reference "SEMS-PHD-698" to associate your application with this studentship opportunity.
| SEMS Research Centre: | ||
| Keywords: | Cancer Biology, Polymer Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering, Nanotechnology, Polymers |