PhD Scholarship – mRNA Therapeutics

A scholarship ($28,854 per year for up to 3.5 years) is available for a cross-disciplinary PhD project. 

Location. You will be based in the University of South Australia and living in Adelaide, which has been ranked the world’s third most liveable city in 2021 by The Economist global index. 

How to apply. Please e-mail your expression of interest to Prof Benjamin Thierry (Benjamin.thierry@unisa.edu.au), including a CV and the names and contact information of three referees.

Project description: COVID-19 vaccines breakthrough technology (Pfizer and Moderna vaccines) is based on lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) designed to carry messenger RNA (mRNA). In the context of COVID-19 vaccines, mRNA is delivered to lymph nodes near the injection site. In this PhD project, we will leverage this technology and rigorously investigate the feasibility of delivering therapeutic mRNAs to far more challenging targets, pancreatic and brain tumours as well as damaged heart tissues. Our approach relies on decorating LNPs with ligands for the Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP) to specifically target the cells responsible in these pathologies for the omnipresent fibrotic tissues. Turning foes into allies, these cells will be hijacked to produce the protein encoded by the mRNA, paving the way to the development of new therapeutic approaches for these devastating conditions. 

The project provides excellent opportunities to be trained in advanced formulation science and preclinical research, including via our collaborators at the Garvan Institute (Pancreatic cancer), QIMR (Brain cancer) and Barker Institute (Heart Failure). The project is also very timely as, recognising the strategic importance of mRNA therapeutics, Australia is massively investing to establish a complete industry ecosystem, thereby providing significant employment opportunities beyond academia.