An Anatomical Society fully funded (UKRI Fees and stipend, plus paid attendance at 3 UK and 1 international conference) is available from October 2026.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a rare form of motor neuron disease that predominantly affects the infant population. SMA was untreatable until 10 years ago, but now 4 effective therapies are available. However, new patient pathophenotypes are emerging, and it is likely this is due to originally sub-clinical defects which remain untreated, and which are now surfacing. Chief amongst these are neurodevelopmental and cognitive defects. In this new collaboration Professor Parson brings his expertise in SMA together with Dr Berg’s expertise in brain development. Our laboratory has lead in describing the importance of microvascular defects in SMA, and has recently developed a novel transgenic mouse model where SMA pathology is driven exclusively in the endothelial cells which line the cardiovascular system. The project will seek to define neurovascular defects in the brain, initially focussing on the hippocampus. The aim of the project is to determine if additional, combinatirial therapies are required to target non-neuromuscular defects in SMA patients. Techniques involved in the research include microdissection, tissue preparation, histology: sectioning, staining, and advanced microscopy, identification and quantification of pathophenotypes in mouse tissues and pathology in patient samples; molecular analysis, data analysis and presentation.

Informal enquiries in the first instance to: Professor Parson: simon.parson@abdn.ac.uk

Apply at: https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/morphology-and-mechanisms-of-brain-microvascular-defects-in-spinal-muscular-atrophy/?p197513