Vacancies

VIDA (Vascular and Immune contributors to DementiA) is a multi-institutional partnership between Alzheimer’s Society and four world-leading research sites: the University of Manchester, University of Edinburgh, Imperial, and City St George’s University of London. With projects focusing on the importance of vascular and immune mechanisms in dementia, VIDA PhD students will become the next generation of much-needed dementia researchers, contributing to breakthroughs in dementia diagnosis and treatment.

PhD studentships

VIDA students will embark upon a 4-year fully-funded PhD project at one of the four institutions above, with access to the state-of-the-art research facilities and interdisciplinary training available at all sites. Students at each site will come together as a cohort at several points during the programme, including annual conferences and residential workshop retreats which will link in with other Alzheimer’s Society Doctoral Training Centres across the UK. Students will also participate in engagement schemes with the Alzheimer’s Society and beyond, sharing the impact of their research in the community. The programme also benefits from built in opportunities for placements with leading industrial partners, and bespoke training plans including schemes to develop teaching, mentoring, and grant writing skills. 

Project Background

Neurovascular dysfunction is increasingly recognised as a key contributor to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)¹, yet the sequence of vascular events and underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Core abnormalities, such as cerebral hypoperfusion², blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption, and impaired cerebrovascular reactivity³, exacerbate amyloid- and tau-associated neurotoxicity. Pericytes, contractile mural cells that support BBB integrity and neurovascular coupling, are particularly vulnerable to amyloid-beta (Aβ) toxicity. Soluble Aβ oligomers induce pericyte contraction and death, leading to BBB leakage and vascular dysfunction⁴. Plasma and microvascular proteomic studies have identified early endothelial and pericyte stress signatures, including inflammation and oxidative stress, offering mechanistic insight into vascular failure in AD⁵. 

We hypothesise that combining in vivo imaging of pericyte dynamics with plasma and microvascular proteomic profiling in a mouse model of amyloidosis will reveal the chronology and interplay of vascular dysfunction triggered by Aβ toxicity.

The project has two objectives:

(1) to functionally and mechanistically characterise microvascular impairment using two-photon and laser-speckle imaging complemented by ex vivo confocal and light-sheet microscopy; and

(2) to develop MRI-based biomarkers of amyloid-driven vascular dysfunction. Longitudinal MRI will quantify cerebrovascular reactivity, perfusion, and BBB permeability, and these imaging readouts will be correlated with vascular and plasma proteomic molecular signatures to identify robust functional biomarkers. 

By establishing the temporal sequence of pericyte degeneration, BBB breakdown, and perfusion deficits over timescales of days to weeks (up to approximately 8 weeks) and linking these to molecular changes, this multidisciplinary project will elucidate the mechanistic drivers of neurovascular dysfunction in AD. The results will provide clinically relevant imaging and molecular biomarkers for early-stage detection and guide translational strategies for diagnosis and therapeutic intervention. 

VIDA (Vascular and Immune contributors to DementiA) is a multi-institutional partnership between Alzheimer’s Society and four world-leading research sites: the University of Manchester, University of Edinburgh, Imperial, and City St George’s University of London. With projects focusing on the importance of vascular and immune mechanisms in dementia, VIDA PhD students will become the next generation of much-needed dementia researchers, contributing to breakthroughs in dementia diagnosis and treatment.

PhD studentships

VIDA students will embark upon a 4-year fully-funded PhD project at one of the four institutions above, with access to the state-of-the-art research facilities and interdisciplinary training available at all sites. Students at each site will come together as a cohort at several points during the programme, including annual conferences and residential workshop retreats which will link in with other Alzheimer’s Society Doctoral Training Centres across the UK. Students will also participate in engagement schemes with the Alzheimer’s Society and beyond, sharing the impact of their research in the community. The programme also benefits from built in opportunities for placements with leading industrial partners, and bespoke training plans including schemes to develop teaching, mentoring, and grant writing skills. 

Project Background

Stroke can double the risk for a new diagnosis of dementia and can worsen cognitive trajectories in patients with existing disease (1). Stroke risk factors, the index stroke and recurrent strokes can contribute to post-stroke dementia, however it is also thought that inflammation can contribute to worsened cognitive decline (2). Systemic infections, such as pneumonia, are also a common complication of stroke recovery, and infections that occur up to 76 days after the initial stroke event have been shown to be independently associated with worsened clinical outcomes (3, 4). Infections can also cause delirium, and recurrent or severe episodes of delirium are also strongly linked to accelerated cognitive decline and the development of dementia (5). Together, this suggests that infection following stroke may contribute to increased dementia risk in survivors, however the mechanisms that drive this are poorly understood. This project will use a mouse model of ischemic stroke and induced bacterial pneumonia to investigate the relationship between systemic infection, neuroinflammation and small vessel disease in stroke recovery. 

Objectives: 

1. Profile the neuroinflammatory response to bacterial pneumonia and its impact on stroke injury recovery 

2. Understand the impact of infection on blood brain barrier (BBB) integrity and blood vessel remodelling after stroke 

3. Investigate circulating biomarkers associated with infection and worsened cognitive outcomes 

Students will be comprehensively trained in all animal work and laboratory techniques and will develop experimental skills including in vivo animal models, flow cytometry, microscopy, microbiology as well as data and image analysis. This project will be carried out at the Institute for Regeneration and Repair (IRR) at the University of Edinburgh where students benefit from an excellent supportive environment with access to cutting edge facilities and both social and career development events through an active postgraduate researcher community.