PhD students form an integral part of the research community at Neuroscience Research Australia. We currently have students studying under the supervision of a NeuRA faculty member in almost every research group across the institute. Our doctoral students come from both Australia and overseas and generally have a graduate degree in either medicine, science or allied health.
If you are interested in commencing a PhD at NeuRA, you must first make contact with a potential supervisor to discuss your proposed project. You can find out about what type of research we are currently conducting in the ‘Our Research’ section of the NeuRA website. You will also find contact details for our group leaders there.
You may start your doctoral studies in either first (March) or second (August) semester. Before you begin, you must be enrolled as a student at a university in Sydney. Most of our current students are enrolled at either UNSW or the University of Sydney.
Read about some of our current PhD students
This PhD project will determine the impact of two essential aspects of laboratory housing on established mouse models for brain disorders.
1) Environmentally enriched housing (EE) provides cage structures such as tunnels (i.e. environmental complexity), whose arrangement may be exchanged every few days (i.e. environmental novelty). Importantly, EE is beneficial in mouse models for brain disorders compared to standard housing. This is in line with reports on the therapeutic-like potential of mental and physical activity in humans suffering from dementias or Huntingon’s disease. Thus, understanding the effects of EE components (i.e. novely, complexity or physical exercise) in mouse models is important for medical applications beyond the preclinical perspective.
2) Recent hygienic requirements have produced a new housing condition called individually ventilated cages (IVC). IVCs have replaced the classic static cage systems in large animal facilities. Surprisingly, nothing is known about the impact of IVCs on mice. We have found that IVCs modify the characteristics of a genetic mouse model for schizophrenia and the susceptibility of mice to psychomimetic drugs.
The PhD student will house mouse models for schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and/or motor neuron disease in classic standard housing, IVCs or provide them with EE components before testing phenotypic features characteristic for these models.
The PhD program will be based within Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) and the University of New South Wales. NeuRA is an international leader in brain and nervous system research. The program will suit an individual with skills in experimental animal model research and an interest in a career in behavioural neurosciences.
Essential criteria: An undergraduate degree with Honours (first class) in a relevant neuroscience, biology, medicine or psychology discipline; eligibility for enrolment in a PhD program at the University of New South Wales; eligibility to apply for an Australian Postgraduate Award or equivalent.
Enquiries to: t [dot] karl [at] neura [dot] edu [dot] au (Dr Tim Karl); phone +612 9399 1125. Please send your application to l [dot] hilton [at] neura [dot] edu [dot] au (Lee Hilton). Fax: 02 9399 1026. Mail: PO Box 1165 Randwick NSW Australia 2031.
Schizophrenia is a chronic and disabling mental disorder that affects 1% of the world’s population. Importantly, cannabis use may be a risk factor in the development of this disease but its role in schizophrenia is not straightforward. This might be due to the opposing effects of the two major cannabis components, delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). Furthermore, only a small proportion of cannabis users (<10%) develop schizophrenia suggesting that a genetic predisposition (i.e. susceptibility) may interact with cannabis abuse to "cause" the disorder. This proposal aims to investigate the potential interaction (i.e. two-hit hypothesis) between the gene neuregulin 1 and the environmental risk factor cannabis by treating knockout and transgenic mouse models for this gene with THC and CBD. Acute and chronic treatment designs will be considered and neuro-behavioural analyses of the consequences of cannabinoid challenge will be determined.
The PhD student will work on a variety of knockout and transgenic mouse models for the schizophrenia candidate gene neuregulin 1, and define the effects of acute and chronic cannabinoid exposure at different developmental stages. Conditioned place preference and withdrawal models will be applied to these mouse mutants as well.
The PhD program will be based within Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) and the University of New South Wales. NeuRA is an international leader in brain and nervous system research. The program will suit an individual with skills in experimental animal model research and an interest in a career in behavioural neurosciences.
Essential criteria: An undergraduate degree with Honours (first class) in a relevant neuroscience, biology, medicine or psychology discipline; eligibility for enrolment in a PhD program at the University of New South Wales; eligibility to apply for an Australian Postgraduate Award or equivalent.
For all enquiries and comprehensive project details, please contact: t [dot] karl [at] neura [dot] edu [dot] au (Dr Tim Karl); phone +612 9399 1125. Please send your application to l [dot] hilton [at] neura [dot] edu [dot] au (Lee Hilton). Fax: 02 9399 1026. Mail: PO Box 1165 Randwick NSW Australia 2031.
