PhD Opportunities in Bioinformatics in United Kingdom

[£21,805 per annum stipend for 2026/7, plus fees coverage.] PhD studentship at the University of Exeter on Explainable AI for Early Dementia Detection and Deployment . The project develops explainable, trustworthy machine-learning methods for the early detection of cognitive decline and dementia. It brings together multimodal data including cognitive assessments, neuroimaging (such as MRI and PET), genetics, lifestyle factors, comorbidities, blood biomarkers, and clinical notes. Data sources men...

The Wellcome Sanger Institute is inviting applications for its 4-year PhD Programme, beginning on 1 October 2027 at the Wellcome Genome Campus in Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom. The programme is designed for students interested in genomics, genome research, genetics, molecular biology, bioinformatics and biomedical science. At least 12 funded PhD studentships are available on a competitive basis. Successful students receive full financial support, including University of Cambridge tuiti...

Fully funded PhD opportunity: How fungal communities recover in lowland grasslands after disturbance. This doctoral project investigates fungal community recovery across three UK grassland sites in Norfolk, Hertfordshire, and Devon. The research will use a time-since-disturbance gradient to study soil microbial communities and ecosystem recovery. Methods include soil sampling, metabarcoding of fungi and bacteria, soil chemistry analysis, and a focal grass species study examining roots, rhizosphe...

The University of Birmingham is offering a full-time PhD studentship in the School of Biosciences investigating drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis using national genomic surveillance data and advanced machine learning. This joint project with the UK Health Security Agency will analyse a national collection of drug-susceptible and drug-resistant M. tuberculosis genomes from England, together with enhanced surveillance records and epidemiological data. The research will characterise res...

PhD Studentship: The Hidden Immune System of Fungi—Uncovering the Roles of NLR Genes The University of Birmingham is offering a PhD studentship in fungal immunology and molecular microbiology, based in Birmingham, United Kingdom. The project investigates how nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeat (NLR) genes contribute to the cryptic immune system of fungi. Using the genetically tractable wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici , which contains 20 NLRs, the research will examine fungal-bacterial...

The University of Birmingham is offering a PhD studentship in metagenomic insights into respiratory microbiome dynamics across the disease severity spectrum. Based in Birmingham, United Kingdom, the project investigates how bacterial, viral, and fungal communities change from respiratory symptoms presenting in emergency care to severe pneumonia requiring intensive care. The research will use large-scale metagenomic sequencing data and advanced computational biology methods for microbial profilin...

The South West Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership (SWBio DTP) is offering over 34 fully funded, four-year PhD studentships starting in September 2027 across a broad range of bioscience and life-science disciplines in the United Kingdom. Students join interdisciplinary projects supported by multidisciplinary supervisory teams. Opportunities may include DTP CASE industry studentships, collaborations with core and associate partners, international research, and fieldwork. The programme is de...

The University of Birmingham in Birmingham, United Kingdom, is advertising a PhD studentship on machine learning for plasmid risk assessment and genomic surveillance, with a focus on respiratory disease and the microbiome. The project will analyse large-scale metagenomic sequencing data from patients across the respiratory disease severity spectrum, including people presenting with respiratory symptoms in emergency care and patients with severe pneumonia in intensive care. Researchers will chara...

Alexandre Almeida, Group Leader at the University of Cambridge, is inviting expressions of interest from prospective PhD students for an October 2027 intake. The research opportunity focuses on the human gut microbiome at the intersection of bioinformatics, genomics, multi-omics and artificial intelligence . Projects may also include experimental work, offering opportunities to combine computational and laboratory-based approaches to investigate microbiome biology. Both home and international st...