Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases

Entry requirements

• Bachelor's degree with 2:1 honours in science, medicine or dentistry.
• A 2:2 degree may be considered if the applicant also has a Master's degree with a merit or distinction.
• Relevant experience may also be acceptable.

Months of entry

February, June, October

Course content

The Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases (WCARD) is part of the Division of Neuroscience within the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN). Research in the WCARD focuses on the maintenance of a healthy nervous system during aging, by understanding how its activity changes during damage to nerves and the surrounding tissues, and investigating new techniques to repair damaged neurons. Our long-term goal is to improve the quality of life of patients affected by lifelong and age-related diseases of the nervous system. Our research is geared towards i) understanding physiological and molecular mechanisms that drive disease conditions and ii) harness our scientific knowledge to develop new therapeutic strategies to restore normal sensory function and to better repair injury.

Currently, our 4 major research themes are:

1. Chronic Pain: Delineating new pathways and mechanisms of chronic pain to allow us to identify innovative targets in neurons and non-neuronal cell.
2. Regeneration: Aiming to restore function after CNS injury by developing regenerative therapies that target the ongoing inflammation and glial scar to facilitate endogenous repair mechanisms.
3. Hearing: Studying the genetics of age-related hearing loss in humans and mice to understand the pathological mechanisms that drive this process.
4. Migraine: Delineating the underlying mechanisms and novel therapeutic targets for migraine and related primary headache disorders from bench to bedside and back.

Researchers in all 4 themes are actively seeking PhD students to join their projects.

We specialise in using electrophysiology and imaging techniques (e.g. patch-clamp; fMRI/microPET; genetic indicators of neuronal activity; in situ hybridization; in-vivo electrophysiology) with sequencing and bioinformatics (e.g. RNAseq, microarray, machine learning) on translational models of human disease (e.g. neuropathic pain, migraine, stroke, spinal cord injury, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, arthritis, fibromyalgia) to better understand disease processes. The results of these studies then inform a drug discovery process to develop innovative therapeutics.

Key benefits

• Interaction with internationally renowned neuroscience researchers both within the WCARD and as presenters at our research seminars.
• Friendly and collaborative research environment
• Partnerships with hospitals, industrial collaborators and other research centres
• PhD students have the opportunity to develop their research skills in the WCARD, and also have access to transferable skills training through the KCL Centre for Doctoral Studies
• We encourage our PhD students to develop their education skills through involvement in tutorials and laboratory demonstrations for undergraduate and taught post-graduate students in the departments of Biochemistry, Neuroscience, Pharmacology and Physiology