Opportunities:

We are always keen to hear from people who are interested in our work and are considering the possibility of working with us. Our lab is a dynamic environment and the group is a friendly one.

 Undergraduates:

As a lab we take a number of dedicated final year project and PTY students. Before deciding on a project in our lab think about:

1. What your research interests are, whether these align with those of the lab and are we interested in asking the same questions?
2. What you want out of the experience, is our lab the right place for you?
3. Before e-mailing Emyr please read some of his publications (e.g. Lloyd-Evans and Haslett 2016, Lloyd-Evans et al. 2008) to get a sense of the lab’s interests and approaches. If you are still interested after reading these papers then e-mail Emyr and describe what aspects of science you are most interested in and why you think you can make a contribution to the lab.

The main research interests of the ELE lab are focused on the role of the lysosome, the degradative centre of the cell, in human disease. Through developing assays that work at the acidic pH of the lysosome (such as Ca2+ signalling) we are able to better tease apart lysosomal function and what happens to the lysosome in diseases that affect children and adults. By focusing on changes in the basic biology of the lysosome we feel we can uncover key therapeutic targets for lysosomal storage diseases (the most common for of childhood neurodegenerative disease) and diseases of ageing (Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s in particular). Our research focuses on a number of key skills including imaging (high speed fluorescence Ca2+ imaging, confocal microscopy), modeling human disease in cells and model organisms and essential biochemical/molecular biology methods including western blotting, cloning, enzymology and lipidology.

 Postgraduates:

MRes: We take MRes students almost every year. This year (2016/2017) we are involved in four projects, two on neurodegenerative diseases (one with a £1k bursary), one on cancer and lysosomes and one on the development of novel lipid binding toxins as insecticidal agents. All of these will be advertised through the MRes program, please contact Emyr direct if you are interested and please state which project.

PhD: Any available funding for PhDs will be advertised via the University webpages and findaphd.com.

We are currently advertising one PhD project for self-funded PhD students (with bench fees) – https://www.findaphd.com/search/projectdetails.aspx?PJID=74816

Post-doctoral scientists:

We are always interested in employing motivated post-doctoral scientists, for anyone with an interest in working for us please contact Emyr directly. We have in the past been successful in obtaining EU Marie Curie funding for post-doctoral fellows from Europe and would be happy to work with prospective candidates in the future. Cardiff is an excellent University garnering support from both the UK and Welsh governments, and a vibrant city to live in. Our department offers excellent training opportunities to post-docs and the Lloyd-Evans lab strongly believes in supporting the career progression of young academics. All of our post-docs have been successful in obtaining some funding for their own research interests (within the scope of their projects).