Projects
The Genetics Department offers the choice of “wet” or “dry” projects, which are undertaken in the Lent Term.
Examples of project titles from previous years
- Investigating the mechanisms of pattern regulation in the zebrafish tailbud
- Modelling the demographic and selective processes shaping diversification of a crater lake cichlid fish
- Regulation of transposon alternative splicing in the soma and germline
- Is Topoisomerase 2 alpha required to maintain mitotic chromosomes
- Lactobacillus versus E. coli
- Exploring population genetic spatial processes
- Exploration and bioinformatics analysis of disease comorbidities
- Demographic history of diverse species from whole genome sequences
- mRNA decay and the control of germline stem cell differentiation
- Integrating ancient African Y-chromosome lineages into present-day phylogenies.
- Mammalian epigenetic control: chromosome architecture and topology in vivo – new insights from genomic imprinting.
- Dissecting Ras inhibition by a novel class of Ras-interacting proteins - a synthetic approach.
- CRISPR-mediated deletion of transposable elements.
- How does an innate immune system recognize a pathogen that is very similar to the host?
- Functional circuitry of odour discrimination in Drosophila larvae.
- Comparative analysis of cancer gene expression data.
- Genetic basis of bullseye pattern formation in Hibiscus flowers.
- Screening for genes that regulate axonal endoplasmic reticulum structure.
- Analysing single cell learning and behaviour with machine learning approaches.
- Drosophila nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.
- Exploring population turnover using evolutionary genetic simulation.
- Systems-level quantitative analyses of spindle pole asymmetric fate.
- The role of centrosome anchoring and release in Drosophila dorsal-ventral axis formation.
- A New Approach to the Treatment of UTIs.
- Why does life history predict genomic diversity?
Examples of BBS dissertation titles from previous years
- 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.
- What is inclusive fitness, and what is it for?
- How important was the functional impact of archaic admixture on the human genome
- 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?
