Wessex One Health BBSRC scholarship: Investigating the antigenicity and cross-reactivity of lyssaviruses and coronaviruses to inform intervention strategies (2026)

What you get

PhD studentships cover four years of UK or International PhD fees and a tax free maintenance allowance (currently £20,780  in 2024-5) plus some research and travel costs.

Type of award

PhD scholarship

PhD project

Investigating the antigenicity and cross-reactivity of lyssaviruses and coronaviruses to inform intervention strategies

Lead partner: University of Sussex 
Supervisor:   Edward Wright: ew323@susex.ac.uk 

Joint partner: APHA 
Supervisor: Guanghui Wu: Guanghui.Wu@apha.gov.uk 

Emerging and zoonotic viruses pose an increasingly serious threat to both human and animal health due to the majority being highly pathogenic. The elevated risk is in part caused by the lack of understanding regarding the host-pathogen interactions and easily accessible, effective countermeasures to minimise the burden of these viruses. Vaccines are one of the most effective countermeasures, which provide protection against severe disease. However, vaccines are only as good as their antigen(s), which are informed through studies of virus antigenicity or cross-reactivity. 

While vaccines exist for rabies virus (RABV), these are based on classical RABV isolates so confer protection against RABV and a few lyssavirus species that are highly related antigenically. However, rabies disease is thought to be caused by all the divergent species within the lyssavirus genus. Therefore, studies of the antigenicity of lyssavirus envelope proteins will be undertaken to aid the development of more widely reactive and potent lyssavirus vaccines. 

Similarly, we have identified several alpha- and beta-coronaviruses within animal reservoirs that have the potential to spillover into human populations. However, the cross-reactivity between these isolates and SARS-CoV-2 is unknown. Therefore, the risk they pose to animals and humans is uncertain, so antigenic characterisation of these viruses is needed to address this. 

This project will involve serological studies of lyssavirus and coronavirus envelope proteins to inform vaccine antigen development and other interventions. It will build on existing collaborations between the Universities or Sussex and the Animal and Plant Health Agency enabling studies of individual antigenic sites in lyssavirus and coronavirus VEPs and in silico generated VEPs. The student will be trained in molecular biology, tissue culture, virus infection and neutralisation, and working in high containment laboratories. 

Eligibility

Who we are looking for

You will have the ambition, motivation and scientific curiosity to research new approaches to combatting infectious diseases in the themes of:

• Detection, prevention and intervention
• Microbial evolution and drug resistance
• Understanding disease spread
• Infection and cellular biology. 

You will have or expect to have an MSc, and/or a first or upper second honours degree in a relevant subject. We welcome applications from graduates of all universities, and from candidates already in work, or returning after a career break.

Note: Lab experience is desirable but not essential as all successful applicants will be trained in basic lab skills where applicable.

The Scholarships are open to both UK and International applicants.  However international places are limited as 70% of each cohort must be Home Students.  In addition, some of the partner laboratories have nationality or residency requirements due to security clearance checks on their researchers.  Please contact the supervisors for details of any further requirements for this project.

Number of scholarships available

One for this project but 17 PhD studentships are available for October 2026  across the programme. 

Deadline

How to apply

Please apply by submitting an application form for a Wessex One Health scholarship and completing our EDI survey

You will find this project listed in Section 14 of the application form.

If you are invited for interview, you should contact the supervisors ahead of the interview, but you are welcome to contact them before applying to find out more about the project.

Contact us

For Sussex-specific enquiries contact pgr-scholarships@sussex.ac.uk

For information on this project, contact the Sussex supervisor: Dr Ed Wright ew323@susex.ac.uk 

For further information on the programme or application process, email WOH@surrey.ac.uk.

You might also be interested in

You can find out more about the Wessex One Health Programme here,

Timetable

The timetable is as follows:

Submission deadline: Midnight Friday 23 January 2026

Shortlisting: by 13 February 2026

Online interviews: Online, week beginning 3 March 2026