PhD Studentship
May 2 @ 8:00 am - May 27 @ 5:00 pm
Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Manchester Metropolitan University and University Hospitals of Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust are sponsoring a PhD studentship, to develop methodology to measure Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers in the plasma of obstructive sleep apnoea patients.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is pathologically defined by the abnormal accumulation of extracellular proteins/peptides such as amyloid beta (Aβ) and tau in the brain, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood. Recent methodological advances have enabled the development and validation of plasma biomarkers that are expected to simplify AD diagnosis. The quality and quantity of sleep, which is significantly disrupted in obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients, has been associated with changes in blood AD biomarker levels in cross-sectional studies. Furthermore, pathological levels of AD biomarkers have been described in CSF of OSA patients, suggesting that sleep apnoea is a potential risk factor for AD.