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Department of Genetics

 

Examples of BBS dissertation titles from previous years

  • The genetic basis of repeated rapid adaptation to fresh water environments in three-spined sticklebacks
  • Discuss the experimental evidence for and against the "Activation-Transformation" model of anterior-posterior patterning of the vertebrate nervous system"
  • Trace the economic and biological causes of the current antibiotic resistance crisis. Is there a solution and, if so, does it lie in the hands of patients, clinicians, regulators or researchers?
  • Human (especially female) meiosis is extraordinarily error-prone. What progress has been made in understanding the molecular basis for this genetic problem?
  • Transcriptional gene silencing in plants.
  • Can the bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia eliminate vector-borne disease?
  • How can model organism genetics best be combined with identification of the genetic causes of rare recessive diseases, to improve our understanding of basic biology, disease mechanisms, and potential therapies?
  • Proposals were announced earlier this year to close down two leading UK mouse genetics facilities. Considering both the scientific and financial issues involved, assess the advisability of these closures.
  • Organoids: a bright future?
  • Aneuploidy in cancer: lessons so far.
  • Transposable elements – a powerful force driving evolution.
  • Genetic Mechanisms of pattern formation on the surface of plants and animals.
  • Issues with identification and interpretation of variants of unknown significance.
  • A case study of differences in incidences of different types of cancer in India, US and the UK and what we can learn from it.
  • Control of spindle orientation in asymmetric cell divisions.
  • Indole produced by the human gut microbiome has been proposed to affect the progress and severity of a wide variety of health conditions. Critically review these claims and discuss the prospects for using the modulation of indole signalling to improve treatment regimes.
  • What is inclusive fitness, and what is it for?
  • How important was the functional impact of archaic admixture on the human genome
  • "Genetic mechanisms of pattern formation on the surface of plant and animals’.
  • Does our modern understanding of epigenetics challenge the tenets of neo-Darwinism?
  • Modelling in Biology: accurate descriptions of our pathetic thinking or pathetic descriptions of the real world?