[visionlist] PhD at Kings College London, Twin Research Unit

[Chris Hammond]

PhD Studentship

Kings College, London
Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit

PhD in the genetic epidemiology of the aging eye

Applications are invited for the following 3 year PhD studentship,  
based at the Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit at St Thomas?  
Hospital in central London, which is part of the Division of Genetics  
and Molecular Medicine at Kings College, London (see www.twinsUK.ac.uk).

The post holder will be involved in the Healthy Aging Twin Study  
(HATS) which is an ongoing longitudinal study (funded by the Wellcome  
Trust) assessing age-related changes in five systems: vision,  
cardiovascular, muscle, bone and respiratory systems. The postholder  
will be involved in the collection of data, by performing the eye  
tests for the twin volunteers (vision, cataract, intraocular pressure  
and retinal photography), and will be involved in their analysis,  
correlating eye phenotypes with other systems, to look at relative  
genetic and environmental influences on aging, and the relationships  
between potential biomarkers of aging such as cataract and retinal  
vascular calibre and other biomarkers such as C-reactive protein and  
cell telomere length.

The PhD student will assist with the statistical analysis of exciting  
data gathered from eye research projects studying the genetic  
epidemiology of common eye diseases including myopia/refractive error,  
cataract, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. The post  
holder will liaise closely with the genetic analysis team in exploring  
and developing genetic data analysis such as large-scale genome wide  
association studies, including the use of publicly available datasets  
to do this. Full statistical support is available.

Graduates with ophthalmology, optometry, molecular biology or  
statistics backgrounds are welcome to apply. For those without a  
clinical background, full training will be given in the eye  
measurement techniques. The postholder will  learn skills related to  
molecular genetic techniques and analysis, as well as learning about  
the epidemiology of common eye diseases.

Interested candidates please contact Prof. Chris Hammond on  
chris.hammond at kcl.ac.uk  to discuss this further. Please send your  
curriculum vitae, together with a letter of interest and names of 2  
academic referees to Ursula.perks at kcl.ac.uk

Closing date: 20 December 2007

Interview date: 11 January 2008 (by telephone, if necessary)


-- 
Chris Hammond
chris.hammond at kcl.ac.uk