Project
Today, 18m worldwide die every year from Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) which is one of the chronic diseases. When platelets aggregate at higher, than usual, rates cause the formation of thrombus. Thrombosis is the first step in the domino effect leading to the manifestation of CVD.
On the other hand, neurological conditions are now the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide. The overall amount of disability, illness and premature death (known as disability-adjusted life years, DALYs) caused by neurological conditions has increased by 18% since 1990.
With this project we wish to investigate the role of lipids against these diseases.
Project title : Food lipids against thrombosis, inflammation, chronic and neurodegenerative diseases
The project includes work on these fields:
1. Platelet aggregation techniques to identify lipids with anti-thrombotic bioactivities,
2. Cell cultures of neurodegenerative diseases to understand the mechanism of action,
3. Structural elucidation of most active lipids.
Entry Requirements
The suitable candidate should meet the criteria below:
Essential criteria
1st Class (or equivalent) BSc in Food Science or Chemistry or Biochemistry or related Sciences.
Desirable criteria
Relevant research experience during the undergraduate studies on biochemistry or analytical chemistry or food components.
Salary/Stipend
The project is funded by a research project in collaboration with Memorial University in Canada.
The PhD grant in place covers the full stipend (€22,000 per year) and annual EU fees (€6,400 approximately).
If you are applying from a non-EU country (annual fees €15,000 approximately), you should seek support for the extra amount (i.e. €15,000 – €6,400 = €8,600 approximately).
Additional Information
Apart from supporting towards with stipend and fees, we support our students for conference participations and offer opportunities for gaining experience of national and overseas research methods and also networking.
The project will be supervised as:
Principal Supervisor : Dr Ioannis Zabetakis (Department of Chemical Sciences)
Secondary supervisor: Dr Andreas Grabrucker (Department of Biological Sciences)
For informal enquiries, please contact Ioannis at
Application Process
To apply, please submit your CV (including information on your BSc degree and possible research experience), a cover letter (on your research interests and experience) and contact details of two referees to the leader of this project:
Research profile of primary supervisor
Contact
Dr Ioannis Zabetakis
ioannis.zabetakis@ul.ie
Closing date for applications: 4th July 2025