PhD Opportunities in Microfluidics in United Kingdom

The University of Oxford is offering a 3.5-year DPhil studentship in Control and Engineering Biology on the project “Learning and controlling cellular dynamics.” The research sits at the intersection of engineering, biology, control theory and machine learning. Potential directions include developing mathematical and computational models of cellular behaviour, designing feedback-control strategies, and building experimental tools using microfluidics, automated microscopy and light-controlled gen...

PhD opportunity: Portable Microfluidic Cell-Function Diagnostics for Measuring Health Status The University of Southampton is offering a competition-funded Doctor of Philosophy project in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences. The research will develop compact, point-of-care technologies for measuring neutrophil function from small blood samples, with the longer-term goal of providing early warning of infection closer to patients and healthcare professionals. The project combines biom...

[EPSRC-funded studentship providing fees plus a stipend of £21,805 per annum for 2026/7.] PhD studentship at the University of Exeter on AI-enabled smart spectroscopy pixels for revealing how microbes respond to antibiotics. This interdisciplinary project combines physics, materials engineering, computer science, and bioscience to develop intelligent spectroscopy pixels and advanced photodetectors for biological sensing. The research will use compact quantum and nonlinear photodetector devices, ...

[Funding of fees plus a stipend of £21,805 per annum for 2026/7.] PhD Studentship at the University of Exeter: Bioinspired fluidic metamaterials for passive directional water transport. This PhD project explores how engineered, plant-inspired surface patterns can be used to control the speed and direction of water transport. The research sits at the intersection of metamaterials, wetting phenomena, surface topography, and microfabrication, with inspiration drawn from carnivorous pitcher plants w...

PhD opportunity in the University of Glasgow in collaboration with Rose Ruiz Daniels and Martin Llewellyn . The project will investigate how climate change affects host-pathogen interactions in salmonids , with a focus on the immune and epithelial cells of fish gills and skin. The research includes animal-free models and experimental systems to study pathogen interactions at biological interfaces. Students will receive training in interdisciplinary methods such as microfluidics , microfabricatio...

University of Southampton postgraduate research project: Laser-based fabrication of microfluidic devices for clinical diagnostic testing . This is a fully funded PhD opportunity (UK only) in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences / School of Optoelectronics (ORC). The project focuses on microfluidics , laser-based direct-write fabrication , paper-based diagnostic devices , and clinical diagnostic testing . The research aims to create affordable, user-friendly point-of-care tests for se...

PhD opportunity at the University of Edinburgh in the School of Regeneration and Repair, focused on cell volume regulation , biophysics , cell biology , and mathematical modelling . This EASTBIO-funded project, titled Decoding Volume Regulation Across Timescales with Ultrafast Imaging and Mechanistic Modelling , will investigate how cells respond to osmotic and hydrostatic pressure changes across milliseconds to minutes. The work combines ultrafast quantitative phase imaging , microfluidic press...

PhD Studentship in Automated Discovery of Next-Generation Lipid Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery at Imperial College London (Department of Chemical Engineering). The Elani Group is seeking a motivated PhD student to develop robotics , automation , and high-throughput screening workflows for discovering new classes of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for drug delivery . The project focuses on automated nanoparticle production, rapid characterization, and screening to understand how particle composition ...

EASTBIO-funded PhD opportunity at the University of Edinburgh in canine oral melanoma , metastasis biology , patient-derived organoids , and organ-on-chip / microfluidic models . This 4-year PhD project is based in the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh and is part of the EASTBIO BBSRC Doctoral Training Partnership . The project investigates how tumour cells escape the primary tumour, migrate, and preferentially colonise specific metastatic niches. Using nat...