PhD project: Engineering biology to decode gene regulatory networks in Arabidopsis lateral root initiation (GUIZIOU_E27DTP)

PhD project: Engineering biology to decode gene regulatory networks in Arabidopsis lateral root initiation (GUIZIOU_E27DTP)

Project and policy information below reflects the October 2026 application material. Confirm present availability and personal terms before submission. Paper evidence has the abstract or selected-text limits stated for each study.

Quick Decision

The distinctive question is how an individual plant cell’s earlier expression history relates to its later identity as a lateral-root founder cell. This Earlham Institute project combines a history-recording approach with microscopy and single-cell transcriptomics, supervised by Sarah Guiziou and Wilfried Haerty. It offers a direct methodological foundation in Guiziou’s recent plant-recording papers and an explicit four-year international funding competition through NRPDTP. The main challenge is interpretation: a recorded sequence of expression events and a transcriptomic cell state do not by themselves establish a complete causal regulatory network. Strong but verify fit.

The October 2026 official call specifies 1 October 2027, 30 November 2026 deadline without a closing hour or time zone, and sarah.guiziou@earlham.ac.uk for enquiries. A useful first question is which founder-cell biological problem will be prioritised, and how recorder validity will be separated from the biological signal. Current exact Earlham lateral-root studentship

Research Problem and Doctoral Work

Lateral-root initiation involves a small subset of cells adopting a new developmental role. A snapshot of RNA abundance can describe their present state but does not directly show every event that preceded it. The doctoral work is to build and optimise serine-integrase genetic circuits in Arabidopsis that record the order of expression of selected genes of interest; analyse the resulting lines with fluorescence microscopy; then use FACS with single-cell RNA sequencing to determine the cell state of precise lateral-root founder-cell subpopulations marked by the circuit. The project connects developmental history, spatial context and current identity. Training also covers engineering biology, automation, molecular biology, microscopy, plant transformation, protoplasting, FACS, single-cell RNA sequencing and analysis; entrants are not required to master the entire toolkit beforehand. Current exact Earlham lateral-root studentship

The work builds on prior plant recorders rather than claiming to invent expression-history recording from nothing. Guiziou’s 2023 study established a plant recording toolkit, and the 2024 study demonstrated ordered-event recording in lateral-root and stomatal development. The doctoral opportunity is to ask a more detailed biological question about founder-cell specification and integrate complementary information. The late part of the project is explicitly open to the student helping shape the scientific direction. Maranas Guiziou 2024 plant expression-history original Guiziou 2023 plant-development recorder toolbox original

Several distinctions determine whether the results will be useful. Recording indicates that an event occurred under a measurement system’s particular response characteristics; it does not automatically quantify its exact timing, strength or causal effect. Transcriptomic similarity need not establish a direct regulatory connection. Selected cell populations can differ from the full tissue, and spatial information and biological variation need to remain visible in interpretation. These are analytical considerations arising from the project and papers, not additional experiments or promised outputs. The 2026 metrology paper reinforces why fluorescence alone may not tell the whole story about recorder behaviour. Maranas Guiziou 2024 plant expression-history original Guiziou 2023 plant-development recorder toolbox original Greco Guiziou 2026 nanopore circuit-metrology original

The strongest potential outputs are a defensible account of a developmental sequence, a carefully characterised link between recording and cell state, and a better-supported model of founder-cell regulation. Whether that model generalises to other tissues, crop species or field environments remains a separate research question. Sustainable agriculture is the group’s long-term mission; neither this call nor the papers discussed above establishes a quantified crop-yield or drought-resilience benefit from this doctoral project. Guiziou group research mission and team

School, Programme and Field Context

The research host is Earlham Institute, a genomics, engineering-biology and computational-biology institute on Norwich Research Park. Its postgraduate guidance explicitly refers to PhD registration at the University of East Anglia and application through UEA. This provides a positive institutional registration route; it does not mean Earlham itself awards the PhD or that a joint degree is offered. The exact course title, registration code and academic school allocation for this student remain to be confirmed. Earlham UEA registration and generic application guidance Earlham postgraduate training environment

The advertised programme is a four-year full-time NRPDTP PhD. It combines specialist research with an individual development plan informed by training-needs analysis, cohort activity, masterclasses, summer conferences and advanced skills options. The advertised three-month PIPS internship is professional experience outside the student’s own research area, distinct from a CASE industrial collaboration. No CASE partner or guaranteed industrial host is named for this project. Current exact Earlham lateral-root studentship Current NRPDTP training pathway NRPDTP current placements

Earlham describes sequencing, single-cell genomics, bioinformatics and automation as central capabilities. Its student body interacts with the NBI Graduate School and postgraduate research directors on support and wellbeing. This is a relevant environment for combining molecular measurements with computational interpretation. Individual access, training slots, computational resources and expenditure allocations still need a student-specific plan; a platform on an institute website is not a reserved personal service. Earlham postgraduate training environment Earlham advanced specialist training and skills environment

UEA is joint 381 overall in QS World University Rankings 2027. That number concerns the degree university, not Earlham, Guiziou’s group or plant engineering biology. A numerical subject ranking is not established by the available information. Here, the institute’s relevant platforms, the two supervisors’ complementary expertise and the project-linked publications are more informative subject signals than the overall university position alone. UEA’s official address confirms Norwich, United Kingdom. QS 2027 UEA overall institutional rank UEA official 2026/27 institutional address

Supervisor and Lab Assessment

Dr Sarah Guiziou is currently a Group Leader. She joined Earlham as a Career Development Fellow in 2023 and subsequently received a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship to develop her group. Her research direction connects plant-root development with engineering biology; the broader group also studies root-associated interactions. Those broader aims should not be imported as compulsory work packages for this founder-cell project. Her earlier University of Washington affiliation in the 2023 paper reflects where that work was carried out, rather than a different current host. Sarah Guiziou current group-leader profile Guiziou group research mission and team

The exact call names Dr Wilfried Haerty as co-supervisor. His official profile identifies him as an evolutionary-genomics Group Leader working on functional non-coding sequence, expression variation and data integration down to single-cell scale; his contact is wilfried.haerty@earlham.ac.uk. The combination is coherent for connecting a recording system to genomic interpretation. Formal co-supervision is confirmed, but the division of daily mentoring, meeting frequency and responsibility for specific analyses is not published. Current exact Earlham lateral-root studentship Wilfried Haerty current evolutionary-genomics leadership

Three recent Guiziou-coauthored originals support the assessment:

• Maranas et al., Nature Communications 15, 9362 (2024), DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-53716-1. A history-dependent recorder connected selected event sequences with later single-cell readouts in roots and stomata, including developmental heterogeneity. The paper directly establishes a relevant plant proof of concept, not the complete founder-cell network now proposed. Its discussion acknowledges a limited event history and further stable-line characterisation. Evidence covers the complete abstract, introduction, selected initial results and indexed discussion; complete methods, supplementary evidence and raw data are outside that scope. Guiziou is the last named author. Maranas Guiziou 2024 plant expression-history original
• Guiziou et al., Nature Communications 14, 1844 (2023), DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-37607-5. The plant-recording toolkit links past expression with descendant-cell readout. The original discussion reports variation among lines and contexts, illustrating that a recorder must be evaluated as a measurement system rather than presumed universally reliable. This is a foundation for the proposed biology, not proof of every new regulatory relationship. Evidence covers the complete original abstract and substantive indexed results/discussion, rather than complete methods or supplementary data. Guiziou 2023 plant-development recorder toolbox original
• Greco et al., Nature Communications (2026), DOI 10.1038/s41467-026-77605-x. The original abstract describes a combination of automation, long-read measurement and computational analysis to examine recorder function and temporal/structural behaviour. It contributes measurement capability, not an already solved lateral-root mechanism. Guiziou is a coauthor; Thomas Gorochowski is the corresponding author. The publisher identifies a peer-reviewed accepted early-release article dated 18 September 2026, subject to further editorial updates. Evidence is limited to the complete abstract, author and version information; full methods, results and supplementary material are outside that scope. Its 2025 preprint is the same work and is not counted again. Greco Guiziou 2026 nanopore circuit-metrology original

The 2021 review in the recruitment bibliography supplies background context. A practical interview should focus on how Guiziou and Haerty will support both the plant biology and quantitative interpretation of the first-year question. Current exact Earlham lateral-root studentship

Funding, Application, and Living Cost

The October 2026 NRPDTP policy explicitly permits eligible international candidates to compete for four years of full tuition, UKRI-minimum maintenance and research support. International appointments are capped at 30% of the annual programme intake, not a proportion or quota reserved within this project. The call’s project-level funding and the eventual award to an individual are separate selection stages. Eligible international candidates still compete for limited awards, with the eventual funding terms confirmed in the individual award. NRPDTP current four-year international funding NRPDTP current foreign qualification eligibility

The quoted £21,805 is the 2026/27 annual reference, not a confirmed personal 2027 rate. £5,000 per year RTSG supports research and training rather than additional living income. For students starting in October 2027, the programme contributes up to £3,500 total towards the student’s own eligible visa and IHS costs, after enrolment and registration against evidence. Dependants are excluded and some upfront cash will still be necessary. The ordinary three-month PIPS does not represent a guaranteed job. NRPDTP current four-year international funding NRPDTP current placements

UEA’s 2026/27 room table lists Village at £178.50/week and Crome at £209.50/week, with 41-week totals of £7,318.50 and £8,589.50. At unchanged rates a 52-week analytical scenario would cost approximately £9,282–£10,894, leaving £10,911–£12,523 from the dated stipend for food, transport, other bills and personal costs. This is not a 2027 accommodation offer or a complete disposable-income forecast. Eligibility for a particular residence, summer arrangements and transport between the accommodation and Earlham need checking. UEA 2026/27 dated accommodation price table

The October 2026 visa application fee reference is £558 and student IHS £776 per year, with the total dependent on visa length and rounding. NRPDTP reimbursement is conditional, capped and paid after registration. Final visa sponsorship, financial/English evidence and any ATAS requirement depend on the individual offer; this project’s CAH subject code has not been confirmed. No categorical Chinese nationality exclusion was found in the eligibility framework described above. Student visa route and application fee Student immigration healthcare surcharge ATAS official conditional subject scope

Applicant Fit and Preparation

The source explicitly welcomes a motivated undergraduate interested in plant science and engineering biology. The normal academic threshold is a UK First/Upper Second-class honours degree or an accepted overseas equivalent. The current NRPDTP exception concerns a Lower Second-class degree combined with an acceptable Master’s or substantial relevant research/non-academic experience; it should not be generalised to every lower qualification. A recognised Master’s is a positive Chinese-applicant PhD route in UEA’s Chinese guidance, but its taught-Master’s percentage ranges do not supply a PhD cutoff. Equivalence is assessed individually. Current exact Earlham lateral-root studentship NRPDTP current foreign qualification eligibility UEA China recognised Master route to PhD

The advertised IELTS requirement is 6.5 overall, each component 6.0. The Science research equivalency table includes PTE 61/60 and TOEFL iBT/iBT26 totals 88/4.5, with reading 20/3.5, writing 19/3.5, listening 19/3.5 and speaking 21/4. Relevant tests are generally valid for two years measured against the course start. English-medium study in China does not automatically satisfy the specified nationality/degree-location waiver conditions. Final admissions decisions control, and NRPDTP permits English to remain a condition of offer at application. UEA Science and Medicine doctoral English equivalencies NRPDTP current application materials and UEA route

Applicants need both NRPDTP Personal and Research Statement proformas, a concise CV, degree certificates and transcripts with official translations where needed, postgraduate records if studied, and two referees, at least one academic. Proposed project supervisors, friends and relatives are not acceptable referees. Non-UK applicants provide passport evidence and relevant previous UK visa/status records. UEA online applications allow at most three projects, separately submitted. Earlham’s generic guide gives a 500-word personal statement and distinguishes an advertised-project research statement from a self-funded proposal. Research statements must be produced by the applicant. The current NRPDTP proformas are mandatory; clarify any word-limit mismatch rather than importing the generic self-funded proposal requirement. Earlham UEA registration and generic application guidance NRPDTP current application materials and UEA route

The call says selection is without regard to gender, marital or civil-partnership status, disability, race, nationality, ethnic origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation, age or social background. The required Personal and Research Statement templates are intended to help applicants from underrepresented groups present relevant examples and evidence. The saved call does not specify a support arrangement following a disability disclosure. NRPDTP current application materials and UEA route

Useful preparation includes plant developmental reasoning, quantitative interpretation of microscopy or transcriptomic data, careful documentation and willingness to learn across wet and computational work. This is an analytical assessment, not an extra list of compulsory techniques. The call offers training across the methods it names. A strong research discussion explains what a measurement can establish, where sampling or context may change its interpretation, and what remains unknown.

Next Actions and Questions to Verify

Before applying, contact Guiziou about the initial founder-cell question and confirm the correct UEA registration route and the NRPDTP template instructions. Prepare for 30 November 2026 without inventing a closing hour or time zone. The October 2026 programme schedule lists interviews for 2–4 February 2027, with outcomes in the week commencing 22 February. Current exact Earlham lateral-root studentship NRPDTP current application materials and UEA route NRPDTP 2027 dates

At interview, ask how the supervisors will divide plant and genomic mentoring, how recorder performance will be distinguished from biological history, and how cell selection and state differences will affect interpretation. Confirm access to the relevant microscopy, single-cell and computational support, and a scientifically useful fallback if the first recording approach is insufficient. Before acceptance, settle the formal course/code, personal funding and payment terms, research budget, internship arrangements and individual language/immigration conditions.

The training can support further plant-development or genomics research and computational/experimental biotechnology roles. Earlham’s advanced-training provision addresses specialist and transferable skills, and its postgraduate environment offers interdisciplinary development. These are credible capabilities to acquire, not evidence of a particular vacancy volume, salary or guaranteed founder/scientist job. The agricultural value remains a longer-term possibility requiring additional validation. Earlham postgraduate training environment Earlham advanced specialist training and skills environment

Evidence and Sources

Project, Team and Research

• Current exact Earlham lateral-root studentship
• Sarah Guiziou current group-leader profile
• Wilfried Haerty current evolutionary-genomics leadership
• Guiziou group research mission and team
• Maranas Guiziou 2024 plant expression-history original
• Guiziou 2023 plant-development recorder toolbox original
• Greco Guiziou 2026 nanopore circuit-metrology original

Registration, Training and Eligibility

• Earlham UEA registration and generic application guidance
• Earlham postgraduate training environment
• Earlham advanced specialist training and skills environment
• NRPDTP current foreign qualification eligibility
• NRPDTP current application materials and UEA route
• NRPDTP 2027 dates
• Current NRPDTP training pathway
• NRPDTP current placements
• UEA current general PGR admissions and general requirements
• UEA Science and Medicine doctoral English equivalencies
• QS 2027 UEA overall institutional rank
• UEA China recognised Master route to PhD

Funding, Cost and Immigration

• NRPDTP current four-year international funding
• UEA 2026/27 dated accommodation price table
• Student visa route and application fee
• Student immigration healthcare surcharge
• ATAS official conditional subject scope
• UEA official 2026/27 institutional address

Additional references listed in the call (not assessed; no link in saved material)

• Guiziou, S., Chu, J. C., & Nemhauser, J. L. (2021). Decoding and recoding plant development. Plant Physiology, 187(2), 515–526.
• Gala, H. P., Lanctot, A., Jean-Baptiste, K., Guiziou, S., Chu, J. C., Zemke, J. E., ... & Nemhauser, J. L. (2021). A single-cell view of the transcriptome during lateral root initiation in Arabidopsis thaliana. The Plant Cell, 33(7), 2197–2220.