Edinburgh EastBio PhD: Dynamic Regulation of Tissue Disassembly and Cell Death in Drosophila

Edinburgh EastBio PhD: Dynamic Regulation of Tissue Disassembly and Cell Death in Drosophila

Quick Decision

This Edinburgh doctorate asks how a living metabolic tissue is dismantled and its cells die at the right developmental time. It combines multi-day live imaging of Drosophila oenocytes, a liver-like tissue, with cell-specific molecular profiling and human-disease evidence. The distinctive opportunity is to connect molecular change with the actual sequence of tissue events, not merely compare fixed snapshots. It offers strong training for cell/developmental biology or genetics applicants interested in quantitative imaging; it is not a purely computational or clinical doctorate. Strong but verify fit: the project directory lists the exact title, with Neha Agrawal and Jenny Regan. Funding competition includes EASTBIO and Edinburgh Doctoral College awards, open worldwide, with tuition, UKRI-rate stipend and project support; there is no separate EDC application. The project instructions list midday on Monday 16 November 2026 (timezone not stated) for Euclid submission and 1 October 2027 entry; whether applications remain open is unconfirmed. References can arrive up to two weeks later under this school's project instructions. The project checklist is available at the university programme page. Clarify the live-imaging platform's readiness, supervisor division and final award conditions before committing. Current official recruitment route; Current school funding call.

Research Problem and Doctoral Work

Tissue removal is as important to development as tissue construction. Disrupted cell death and tissue remodelling can contribute to developmental disorders and cancer, but the proposed experiments do not constitute a human treatment study. The advertised model uses metamorphosis in Drosophila to watch oenocytes, hepatocyte-like cells forming a liver-like organ, undergo disassembly. The laboratory reports an established in-vivo framework using long-term live imaging and fluorescent cell-death reporters to follow tissue organisation and cell-death activity over several days. Existing candidate genes and hormonal pathways suggest mechanisms affecting timing and progression. The student's advertised work combines this imaging with cell-specific molecular profiling, connecting gene-activity changes with dynamic events. It also integrates human disease data and Drosophila disease models to investigate conserved mechanisms. The final scope can reflect the student's interests and collaborations; the exact human dataset, profiling platform and first-year question are not named. Training covers specialist microscopy, long-term live imaging, quantitative image analysis, cell-specific molecular profiling, Drosophila genetics, immunohistochemistry and molecular biology. These are concrete laboratory and analytical tasks, not a promise that every technique must be mastered before entry. Useful high-level scientific questions concern distinguishing tissue fragmentation from genuine cell-death activity, aligning molecular snapshots with an evolving event sequence, and deciding what a conserved fly mechanism does or does not imply about human disease. Batch variability, developmental staging and the interpretability of reporter signals make reproducibility important. A highly relevant 29 December 2025 preprint by Radhakrishnan, Landgraf, Zechini, Scopelliti and Agrawal has registered metadata and an abstract describing longitudinal oenocyte imaging and hormone-regulated death timing. This is a plausible link to the advertisement's otherwise incomplete “recent study(1)”citation, not a proven bibliographic match. Available evidence is limited to DOI-registry metadata and the abstract; the full preprint, supplementary videos and subsequent peer-review status have not been verified. The abstract supports the broad framework without proving platform availability for the new student. Registered preprint metadata and abstract. The wider research direction links time-resolved imaging, cell-state analysis and cross-species functional interpretation. Its value is a mechanistic account of sequence and timing, with human relevance tested rather than presumed. The recent papers below demonstrate complementary strengths while examining different tissues/life stages. Expected outputs could include an analysed event atlas and evidence for a mechanism, depending on feasibility; these are possible outputs, not contractual deliverables. Quantitative imaging, molecular analysis, reproducible data processing and communicating uncertainty transfer to academic and industrial bioscience. The National Careers Service describes biological-scientist roles across research, pharmaceuticals, food and other sectors, with a broad £28,000–£53,000 starter-to-experienced salary range. That is occupational context, not this project's graduate salary or placement rate. NHS clinical biochemistry follows a separate professional training route. Career tasks, range and qualification boundaries.

School, Programme and Field Context

The degree-awarding university is Edinburgh, with the School of Biological Sciences, College of Science and Engineering, at King's Buildings. The exact advertised registration is Biological Sciences with Internship PhD, four years full-time. Agrawal's group is in the Institute/Centre for Cell Biology, while Regan's lab is associated with the Institute of Immunology and Infection. Co-supervision across these groups does not create a joint degree. The live programme page was directly retrieved as 2027 entry; older search-cache text still described 2026 and lower TOEFL component thresholds. The current capture governs this report. Current 2027 degree programme; Agrawal affiliation; Regan affiliation. The current 2027 programme, read through a separate verified university capture on 22 October, sets a first-year probationary period, a thesis committee including an independent chair, 10-week and 10-month reports and annual reviews. It describes a year-two poster, year-three oral presentation, a thesis of at most 100,000 words and a viva. The internship is ordinarily three months; approval for up to six months does not itself extend funding. The part-time heading (eight years) and body (84 months) conflict; the advertised funded route remains four-year full-time. For subject-specific institutional evidence, the school's REF 2021 summary reports 94% of research at four/three-star levels, with a 100% four-star research environment and fifth UK research power in THE's interpretation of REF 2021. These are historical broad-school signals, not a 2027 global ranking or a grade for this laboratory. No more recent project-specific ranking or student-outcome dataset was verified. School REF 2021 interpretation. Successful students join the EASTBIO cohort as funded or associate-funded researchers and complete mandatory training, including a three-month placement. EASTBIO's current framework places core training mainly in years 1–2, and research emphasis in years 3–4. Its PIPS guidance requires a 12-week non-academic placement before the end of year 3, planned from year 1; confirm how associate-funded students' placement/expense arrangements are implemented. The displayed 2026/27 training calendar is illustrative rather than a final 2027 schedule. Student-visa holders must study full-time and be based within commuting distance, apart from authorised fieldwork/placements. Training framework; Professional placement; Study and residence arrangements.

Supervisor and Lab Assessment

Agrawal is a Lecturer in Molecular Genetics. Her background spans calcium signalling, inter-organ nutritional growth regulation and human-obesity genetics in fly models. The lab's official research and centre pages specifically connect metabolic organ morphology, remodelling and death with live imaging. Regan is a Senior Lecturer whose lab studies sex differences in immunity and ageing. These backgrounds offer complementary perspectives on metabolic tissue state and its maintenance/removal, although the precise division of this joint project is not published. Agrawal university profile; Research background and team; Current cell-biology context; Regan university profile.

Recent important primary papers

Agrawal et al 2021, PLOS Biology 19(11): e3001255, published 8 November 2021, falls within five years of this report. It combines human genetic evidence with systematic fly functional assessment to prioritise candidate obesity genes and their tissue sites. It demonstrates the logic of moving from human association to tractable organism-level biology. It does not show that every human candidate is causal or that a fly organ fully represents a human liver; the current topic's focus on dynamic tissue death is a further question. Full 2021 primary paper. Regan et al 2022, Nature Aging 2:1145–1158 shows that enterocyte sexual identity and basal autophagy shape intestinal health, lifespan and response to a pharmacological perturbation. It makes cell state and biological sex scientifically material rather than background descriptors. The project-relevant lesson is that tissue context can alter cellular response; adult intestinal ageing is distinct from oenocyte disassembly during metamorphosis, and animal results do not establish human therapy. Full 2022 tissue-state study. Juricic et al 2022, Nature Aging 2:824–836, with Regan as a co-author, finds persistent intestinal protective effects after a limited early intervention in flies and mice, associated with sustained autophagy. It illustrates why a tissue's history matters when linking an intervention with later events. It does not establish clinical anti-ageing efficacy, or prescribe a treatment for readers. Its relevance to the PhD is temporal reasoning and organ physiology, not a promise to repeat those interventions. Full 2022 temporal-response study. Agrawal's official 2025 insect-hormone workshop programme lists a talk on hepatocyte-like cell death, providing evidence of relevant recent activity beyond the 2021 paper. The registered 2025 preprint adds a closer scientific link but is not counted among the three verified peer-reviewed primary papers. Official 2025 conference programme; Preprint status boundary.

Related primary studies and references

• Neha Agrawal; Katherine Lawler; Catherine M. Davidson; Julia M. Keogh; Robert Legg; INTERVAL; Inês Barroso; I. Sadaf Farooqi; Andrea H. Brand. Predicting novel candidate human obesity genes and their site of action by systematic functional screening in Drosophila. PLOS Biology 19(11): e3001255. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001255. Online 2021-11-08; issue November 2021. Agrawal first; equal contribution with Lawler; Farooqi/Brand corresponding link 1 link 2
• Jennifer C. Regan; Yu-Xuan Lu; Enric Ureña; Ralf L. Meilenbrock; James H. Catterson; Disna Kißler; Jenny Fröhlich; Emilie Funk; Linda Partridge. Sexual identity of enterocytes regulates autophagy to determine intestinal health, lifespan and responses to rapamycin. Nature Aging 2(12):1145–1158. DOI: 10.1038/s43587-022-00308-7. Online 2022-12-01; issue December 2022. Regan first of nine; publisher marks equal contribution with Lu and correspondence Regan/Lu/Partridge link 1 link 2
• Paula Juricic; Yu-Xuan Lu; Thomas Leech; Lisa F. Drews; Jonathan Paulitz; Jiongming Lu; Tobias Nespital; Sina Azami; Jennifer C. Regan; Emilie Funk; Jenny Fröhlich; Sebastian Grönke; Linda Partridge. Long-lasting geroprotection from brief rapamycin treatment in early adulthood by persistently increased intestinal autophagy. Nature Aging 2(9):824–836. DOI: 10.1038/s43587-022-00278-w. Online 2022-08-29; issue September 2022. Regan ninth of thirteen; university record marks Partridge correspondence link 1

Publication records and reading scope

The 21 October 2026 source pack explicitly attests complete reading of 23/27/27-page PDFs; these remain historical attestations, with no local full-text files or page-by-page logs available for independent replay. On 22 October 2026, only bibliographic fields, bylines and selected abstracts were checked; no new full-paper reading was recorded. The 2025 preprint remains at metadata/abstract level, not one of the three peer-reviewed originals. The older lab team page lists three PhD students and one research assistant; the newer centre page lists four PhD students. Neither proves 2027 capacity. Regan's profile lists a 2026–29 BBSRC project on macrophage behaviours, but that is a separate research grant, not this student's ring-fenced budget. The lab opportunities page still shows a different project closing 17 January 2025; it must not override the current exact directory or be used to label this 2027 studentship expired. Meeting frequency, day-to-day imaging/profiling supervision, equipment access and first-year support remain to be agreed. Older team snapshot; Newer team snapshot; Regan research activity; Historical separate vacancy.

Funding, Application, and Living Cost

Funding coverage and eligibility

The advertised four-year fully funded competition considers applicants for either EASTBIO BBSRC Doctoral Landscape Award or an Edinburgh Doctoral College Award. Applicants worldwide are eligible and successful students join one cohort; there is no separate EDC application. Tuition support, a UKRI-rate stipend and project costs are included. Under the saved EASTBIO policy, international EASTBIO awards are capped at 30% of the EASTBIO intake. This is an intake quota, not an individual probability of success; the saved materials do not specify whether this intake spans host institutions or refers to a particular year, and do not establish an EDC cap. Chinese nationality is not excluded. Confirm the exact route and complete international fee coverage for all four years in the award letter. International fee-waiver policy; School funding routes. The school says EDC provides tuition and a four-year stipend plus a project grant of £5,000 in each of years 1–3 and £1,000 in year 4. The page calls this matching EASTBIO support; do not replace the published £1,000 with another institution's £1,500. Verify each route's exact research budget and access rules. Research funds are not personal income. UKRI's published 2026/27 minimum stipend is £21,805, or £1,817.08/month; the 2027/28 rate is not confirmed here. No other project's £22,437 estimate is treated as this project's formal promise. EASTBIO excludes visa and IHS charges; EDC treatment of these costs should be checked separately. Current EDC budget; UKRI published reference year; Excluded immigration costs.

Application and language requirements

Contact Neha.Agrawal@ed.ac.uk with a CV to discuss the research informally; extra CVs are disregarded in the formal EASTBIO competition. The current project instructions require Euclid application to Biological Sciences with Internship, start 1 October 2027, by midday on Monday 16 November 2026, with the timezone not specified in the project wording. Whether applications remain open is unconfirmed. References are accepted up to two weeks after that deadline. This is a school-specific extension; central guidance normally asks for references by 16 November, so aim earlier and confirm the exact final reference time rather than importing Aberdeen's same-night rule. Enter the project title, proposed supervisors and anticipated EASTBIO/Edinburgh Doctoral College Award funding. Upload the completed EASTBIO application form in the Research Proposal Section; a generic programme request for a proposal does not replace the competition's form. Provide referee details or completed template references. Entering details triggers an automatic upload invitation, but the letter must still use the EASTBIO template; send it to referees beforehand. Choose one EASTBIO project, complete the anonymous EDI survey and put its response ID on the form. Non-English academic documents require certified translations. Submitted applications remain under consideration until 22 February 2027, when successful candidates are invited to interview. Check email and Euclid for missing-document requests; the university can amend/withdraw scholarships. Central mandatory documents; Selection stages; Current degree application context. The live 2027 programme requires a relevant UK 2:1 or international equivalent, some research experience and understanding of the field; relevant industrial experience may partly meet the requirement and non-standard backgrounds are considered individually. IELTS 6.5 overall, each component 6.0, with no IELTS One Skill Retake. For TOEFL tests before 21 January 2026, the live page now says 92 overall, 23 each; from that date, 4.5 overall, 4.5 each, with no MyBest. These differ from older search-cache thresholds. IELTS/TOEFL normally must be no more than two years old on the first day of the starting month. Confirm Chinese degree equivalence, any approved English-medium-degree exemption and whether the offer requires ATAS. The programme has no application fee. Directly read 2027 academic and English requirements. The programme also lists other accepted tests with route-specific scores and validity. An English-taught degree is an alternative only where the stated country/institution and recency rules are met; a Chinese English-medium degree is not an automatic waiver. For nationals outside majority English-speaking countries, an eligible English-taught and assessed degree must be no more than five years old on the first day of the entry month. The current China selector does not publish a universal percentage threshold for this PhD: the 80–85% table applies to taught postgraduate courses and two named MScR programmes. Obtain an individual qualification assessment.

Edinburgh purchasing power

The university's March 2026-calculated 2026/27 postgraduate budget is £1,542/month or £18,504 per 52-week year. Monthly categories are accommodation/utilities £978, food/shopping £248, mobile £12, social/leisure/wellbeing £246 and local bus £58 for age 22+. Accommodation/utilities examples span £752–£1,249/month, with different inclusions and availability. Immigration, relocation and exceptional study costs require a separate budget; 2027 prices and stipend are not established. These reference figures do not establish a personal disposable balance. Actual university budget and housing variation. Current Student visa fees are £558 and student IHS £776/year. If eventual permission is chargeable for 4.5 years, the illustration is £4,050 upfront including visa, excluding flights/deposits. The final CAS and future rates determine the charge. Outside-London maintenance evidence is currently £10,539 for nine months, not this city's full-year budget. An award and its immigration sponsorship evidence must be checked individually. Visa fees; IHS rules; Maintenance evidence.

Applicant Fit and Preparation

The formal degree/research/English conditions above are requirements. The advertisement offers comprehensive technique training and does not make previous independent fly genetics, imaging or profiling expertise universal prerequisites. Developmental/cell biology, molecular genetics or quantitative bioscience can provide relevant foundations. A purely computational applicant should ask about the balance of hands-on work; an applicant interested only in human clinical research should recognise the central model-organism scope. Useful suggested preparation includes a short critical discussion of how longitudinal images and molecular profiles answer different questions, what a reporter does not establish on its own, and how to distinguish a conserved mechanism from a human-disease claim. Show a previous research example with data-quality or statistical reasoning. Quantitative image-analysis and data-management skills could complement wet-lab training; no particular programming language is prescribed as an official admission requirement. Bring questions about the incomplete recent-study citation and available supplementary movies to the supervisor discussion.

Next Actions and Questions to Verify

Before applying

Contact Agrawal with a CV; ask for the exact recent oenocyte study and videos, which elements are established, and the first-year question/profiling platform. Confirm Chinese qualification equivalence, current language evidence and Euclid's exact deadline/reference extension. Choose the single EASTBIO project, complete EDI and supply the reference template before automatic invitations are sent.

At interview

Ask how molecular changes will be linked to observed cell/tissue events, what supports cross-species interpretation, and which human-disease data are available. Clarify imaging access, day-to-day analytical/technical support, reproducibility risks and a feasible fallback scope. Agree Agrawal/Regan supervision roles, current capacity, meeting frequency, and the three-month placement's timing and funding for each award route.

Before accepting

Obtain the named scholarship route, final 2027/28 stipend, four-year international tuition coverage and exact research/travel/placement budgets. Check any additional programme charges, ATAS/CAS/visa/IHS, housing contract and initial cash. Confirm local progression requirements, ethics/data governance and the final training calendar; funding competition and old lab webpages are not individual award evidence.

Evidence and Sources

• EASTBIO current official application and delegated project directory
• EASTBIO current eligibility and overseas fee waiver
• EASTBIO selection and timeline
• EASTBIO training structure
• EASTBIO mandatory professional internship
• Agrawal lab research and methods
• Agrawal lab team
• Neha Agrawal official research profile
• Jenny Regan official research profile
• Regan lab official home
• Agrawal current Centre for Cell Biology profile
• Agrawal older opportunities page
• Edinburgh Biological Sciences REF 2021 subject context
• Biological Sciences with Internship current 2027 programme
• SBS 2027 current EASTBIO and EDC funding
• Edinburgh postgraduate living costs 2026/27
• UKRI current stipend and fee minima
• UK Student visa current application fee
• UK student health surcharge
• UK outside-London maintenance evidence
• National Careers Service biological scientist careers
• Agrawal et al 2021 candidate human obesity genes
• Regan et al 2022 intestinal sexual identity and autophagy
• Juricic et al 2022 persistent intestinal autophagy effects
• Radhakrishnan et al 2025 oenocyte preprint registered metadata
• International Insect Hormone Workshop 2025 official programme