Project Overview

Applications are invited for a 4-year funded PhD position. The PhD scholarship stems from Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine funded research project Transform. This is a large multi-disciplinary collaboration between the School of Food & Nutritional Sciences in University College Cork and the Department of Food Chemistry & Technology at Teagasc.

The objective of the TransForm project is to develop and test novel milk-derived nutritional hydrogels, designed for patients with early-stage cancer cachexia (CC). Current dietary strategies for CC include high-protein beverages and energy-dense diets but compliance rates in those afflicted with CC can be low, due to taste changes and poor appetite among other factors. The proposed technological solution is a thermo-reversible casein based hydrogel, which can function as a natural delivery vehicle for proteins and micronutrients. The successful candidate will focus on developing casein-dominant hydrogels by combining dairy ingredients and lab-scale filtration experiments with physico-chemical, stability and rheological characterisation to assess the influence of compositional changes on gel structure development and loss. A range of prototype gels will be developed as part of this task and will be passed forward to collaborators for up-scaling and in-vitro and in-vivo assessment.

Scholarship details

The scholarship has a value of €31,000 per annum, which includes a €25,000 stipend and €6000 University Fees. Progression through the PhD programme is subject to satisfactory output of scientific results and publications. The position will be based in the School of Food and Nutritional Sciences between the Food Chemistry & Production Research Group and the Food Ingredients Research Group, at UCC, and the successful candidate will be supported by an interdisciplinary team of academic supervisors within the School of Food & Nutritional Sciences and the department of Food Chemistry and Technology at Teagasc.

Academic supervisors: Dr Tom O’Callaghan and Prof Seamus O’Mahony (UCC)

Candidate Requirements

The successful candidate should be enthusiastic, curious and self-motivated, and be prepared to work independently and as part of team. A minimum qualification of a 2.1 honours degree in Food Science, Nutritional Sciences, Biological Sciences or a related discipline are desirable. Applications should state final grade scores in third level degrees. A minimum level of competency in English is required for registration at UCC. Please see the following link regarding English Language requirements (https://www.ucc.ie/en/study/comparison/english/).