Wessex One Health BBSRC scholarship:Identification of Henipavirus cell entry factors using an innovative screening platform to inform therapeutic 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

Identification of Henipavirus cell entry factors using an innovative screening platform to inform therapeutic strategies.

Theme(s): Detection, Prevention and Intervention; Infection and Cellular Biology.

Lead partner: University of Sussex 
Supervisor: Dr Leandro Castellano: l.castellano@sussex.ac.uk

Joint partner: The Pirbright Institute
Supervisor: Dalan Bailey:  dalan.bailey@pirbright.ac.uk 

Project Summary

The escalating frequency of outbreaks caused by emerging and zoonotic viruses that have high mortality rates underscores the urgent need for strategies to minimise their impact. One group of viruses of particular concern is the henipaviruses, particularly Nipah virus (NiV), with mortality rates of up to 100%. It is therefore important to deepen our understanding of how these viruses interact with the host to enable the development of robust interventions to safeguard both human and animal health.

To address the shortfall in our understanding of host-virus interactions regarding henipaviruses, we have developed a functional genetic screen combining CRISPR/Cas9 and pseudotyped viruses (PV) technologies that has significant advantages over similar studies based on authentic (live) virus infection assays. This innovative screening platform, Ceudovitox, allows us to enhance our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of viral entry and enables us to build a detailed interactome map of host proteins and pathways involved in this process, ultimately supporting the development of therapeutic strategies to block virus infection.

Using cutting-edge NGS technology and advanced biochemical assays, this project will explore henipaviruses' entry mechanisms using NiV and Cedar virus (CedV) – another henipavirus - as prototype examples. The ultimate goal is to develop effective treatments for this group of viruses. 

You will be trained in different aspects of molecular biology, bioinformatics, and virology:

Molecular biology - You will learn how to perform molecular biology and biochemical techniques, such as CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, western blotting, RT-qPCR, cloning, reporter assays, and prepare libraries for NGS-related approaches.

Tissue culture - The project will give you a firm grounding in mammalian cell culture and in generating pseudotyped viruses for use in various entry and inhibition assays. 

Viral infection in vitro models - CL3 training to handle wildtype virus and microscopy of virus-infected cells. This will build on the cell culture training and develop it to include viral infections and plaque assays. 

Bioinformatics - You will learn how to analyse NGS data, as well as genome mapping, sequence alignment and visualisation, pathway enrichment analysis, primer design, guide RNA design, and others.

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 further 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 Leandro Castellano: l.castellano@sussex.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