Projects

The Department offers the choice of ‘wet’ or ‘dry’ projects, which are undertaken in the Lent Term.

Examples of project titles offered 2016

• Deterministic and stochastic models for inferring fitness effects in viral populations
• A connectomics approach to study the role of novel neurons in sensory discrimination
• Dissecting the C-terminal region of Topoisomerase IIα
• Determining the function of long non-coding NAs using Cas9/CRISPR genome editing
• Heat responsive transposon and its possible role in acclimation to heat stress
• Genomics of Drosophila Sox100B transcription factor
• Visualising single neurons that monitor activity in mushroom bosies (memory centre) of larval Drosophila – a Brainbow approach
• The role of Par-1 in polarising the cortex
• Genome reduction and pathogenicity in bacteria
• Indole signalling and antibiotic resistance
• Manipulating mother-daughter controls for asymmetric expression and age-sensitive protein mobility
• Identifying genes associated with novel mutant phenotypes in Drosophila
• Comparing recombination maps in Pan genome sequence data
• Characterisation of cellular immune response in resistant and susceptible Drosophila lines to the parasitoid wasp Leptopilina boulardi
• Drosophila in vivo proteomics
• Using micro-injection to down-regulate genes involving retro-element suppression in maize endosperm
• Genetic variation in the susceptibility of Drosophila to DAV
• Viewing the axonal ER network in live Drosophila that are mutant for hereditary spastic paraplegia genes
• Optogenetic activation of modulatory neurons to test behavioural odour discrimination in Drosophila larvae
• Analysis of cell behaviour and gene expression during ES cell differentiation
• In vivo characterisation of Drosophila LYST homologue
• Characterisation of Tem1 phosphorylation in the control of mitotic exit network and the spindle orientation checkpoint in yeast
• Molecular evolution of rotavirus

Examples of project titles offered 2015

• Investigating islands of divergence in the primate genome data using population genetics statistics
• An RNAi screen for kinases that activate myosin II at the oocyte posterior
• E-N Cadherin and the transition between self-renewal and differentiation in embryonic stem cells
• Analysis of ectopic localisation of the mitotic protein Endos
• Epigenetic control of the imprint memory in mammals
• Study of the expression and function of Notch during early differentiation
• Host adaptation of the non-structural influenza protein NS1
• Using patterns of phylogenetic loss to predict functionally related genes and binding partners
• Glaucoma in leonberger dogs
• Tracking down function of the motor disease protein spatacsin by genetic interactions
• Is there cellular mechano-sensing in yeast?  
• Single cell analysis of neurons that provide non-olfactory sensory input into mushroom bodies of larval Drosophila
• Expression of proteins at the Kt-MT interface
• Analysis of gene structure and gene expression profiles using Drosophila embryogenesis
• Indole signalling  and oxidative stress in E.coli

Examples of project titles offered 2014

• The role of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Alzheimer's disease
• Testing neurons for odour discrimination in larval Drosophila
• Comparative analysis of phenotypes
• What determines the evolutionary rates of pathogenic bacteria?
• Sox100B target genes
• A teaching resource for transcriptional regulation and transcription factor combinatorics
• Tracking in vivo mobility of polarity determinants during the cell cycle
• Indole Pulse Signalling and Stress Responses in E. coli
• Screen for new chromatin regulators that function with heterochromatin proteins
• Development of database mining approaches to identify new members of biological pathways
• Maintaining ‘epigenetic’ memory - Characterisation of ZFP57 mutant mice
• Use of photoconvertible fluorescent proteins to untangle the growth cascade of S. pombe
• In silico characterization of mitochondrial proteins and RNAs in Drosophila
• Mouse digestive tract development - Lineage tracing using Troy-GFP-ires-CreERT2 mouse line