PhD studentship – Mathematical models for Cytogenetic Radiation Biodosimetry: going on depth

PhD studentship – Mathematical models for Cytogenetic Radiation Biodosimetry: going on depth

Following nuclear accidents including Chernobyl and Fukushima, Biological dosimetry has been demonstrated to be essential for prompt determination of the radiation dose received by exposed individuals or groups of individuals. The dose is usually estimated quantifying the damage produced by radiation at the cellular level, for instance by counting the number of chromosome aberrations such as the radiation specific dicentrics or micronuclei. This topic has been of great recent interest as it is the opinion of the international radiation protection community that it is now a case of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ the next large scale (multi region, many thousands of exposed individuals) radiological accident or terrorist incident will take place.

Several mathematical models based on Compound and Mixed Poisson distributions has been developed in order to explain the observed frequencies of chromosome aberrations, to facilitate the estimation of the received dose. However, high doses of radiation produce underdispersed distributional patterns not explainable using the existing models. The main objective of this project is to develop mathematical models to explain the mechanisms producing these anomalous frequencies of chromosome aberrations. This is a cross disciplinary collaborative PhD project between the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Public Health England (PHE), with approximately 50{06fdc68f0c32a4bb4bc587245a8893a97471dc602b4e431d14a97651d507d6d7} of time spent at UAB and 50{06fdc68f0c32a4bb4bc587245a8893a97471dc602b4e431d14a97651d507d6d7} of time spent at PHE. In addition the successful candidate will have the opportunity to train with biodosimetry experts at the Ukrainian Institute for Medical Radiology in Kharkiv and to carry out a short research stay at the Department of Mathematical Sciences in Durham University, with collaborators experienced in analyzing biodosimetry data.

This is a cross disciplinary collaborative PhD project between the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Public Health England (PHE), with approximately 50{06fdc68f0c32a4bb4bc587245a8893a97471dc602b4e431d14a97651d507d6d7} of time spent at UAB and 50{06fdc68f0c32a4bb4bc587245a8893a97471dc602b4e431d14a97651d507d6d7} of time spent at PHE, being co-supervised from PHE by Dr. Elisabeth A. Ainsbury. The hosting research groups will provide working space, access to libraries, online journals and databases and other facilities. The successful candidate will become a member of the research groups during the period of his/her doctoral studies.

To see the full announcement and for details of how to apply, please go to: https://obrasociallacaixa.org/en/educacion-becas/becas-de-posgrado/inphinit/call-for-applicationthen go to “How to apply” and click on “SEARCH FOR A POSITION”. Then in “Research Center” you have to mark BGSMath-CRM and “Search”. The BGSMath project is at the top of the second page. There is also a presentation with additional background information here: http://mat.uab.es/~ppuig/puigpub_archivos/frame.htm.