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About
About UCL
Founded in 1826 in the heart of London, UCL is London's leading multidisciplinary university, with more than 16,000 staff and 50,000 students from 150 different countries.

Available Projects

The CDT recruits students directly to projects. Applicants rank preferences; successful candidates will be assigned to a project based on fit and availability.

How to Apply

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application page

Project Title	Description	Supervisors	Research Theme	Keywords
File Engineering Real-World Surfaces to Control the Acquisition of Antimicrobial Resistance	Designing surfaces to disrupt the spread of antibiotic resistance	Giorgio Volpe, Lena Ciric	Theme 1: Preventing Infections	Quantitative biophysics; Antimicrobial resistance; Horizontal gene transfer; Microfabrication; Surface engineering; Biofilms; Plasmid transfer; Fluorescence imaging.
File Engineering the microenvironment to curb antifungal resistance and limit fungal infections	Targeting adaptive stress responses to overcome antifungal resistance	Duygu Dikicioglu, Eli Keshavarz-Moore	Theme 1: Preventing Infections	Antifungal resistance, fungal stress response, synthetic biology, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Aspergillus nidulans, multidrug resistance, biofilms, biochemical engineering
File Dual-Action Antimicrobial Materials: Integrated Mechanical and Biochemical Antibiofilm Technologies for Infection Prevention	Smart surfaces that fight infection with enzymes and engineering	Michele Crotti, Martyna Michalska	Theme 1: Preventing Infections	Antimicrobial materials, biofilms, enzyme immobilisation, quorum sensing, nanofabrication, medical devices, AMR, hybrid surfaces, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus
File Programming Industrially Robust Conjugative Plasmids to Halt AMR Gene Spread Using Large Language Model Genome Design Tools	AI-driven genome engineering of conjugative plasmids to disrupt antimicrobial resistance transmission	Darren Nesbeth, Eli Keshavarz-Moore	Theme 1: Preventing Infections	Conjugative plasmids, antimicrobial resistance, synthetic biology, genome engineering, large language models, bioprocess engineering, horizontal gene transfer, AI in biology
File Novel Ultrasound-Assisted Antimicrobial Strategies for Dental Biofilm Infections	Ultrasound-triggered nanoparticle therapies for targeted disruption of oral biofilms	Stavroula Balabani, Panagiota Angeli	Theme 1: Preventing Infections	Ultrasound-assisted drug delivery, dental biofilms, nanoparticle therapeutics, acoustic streaming, cavitation, endodontic infections, oral health, microfluidics, antimicrobial resistance
File Transforming Antimicrobial Peptides into Medicines via AI-Empowered High-Throughput Nanoparticle Synthesis Platforms	Accelerating antimicrobial nanomedicine through the powerful trinity of microfluidics, automation, and AI.	Maximilian Besenhard, Maryam Parhizkar	Theme 1: Preventing Infections	Antimicrobial peptides, AMR, drug delivery, nanoparticle formulation, flow chemistry, high-throughput experimentation, automation and robotics, artificial intelligence
File Nanoengineered Slippery Coatings for Infection-free Orthopaedic Implants	Antibiotic-free surface engineering to prevent infections on orthopaedic implants	Manish K. Tiwari, Shervanthi Homer-Vanniasinkam	Theme 1: Preventing Infections	Orthopaedic implants, antimicrobial coatings, nanoengineering, slippery surfaces, biofilm prevention, AMR, medical device infections, surface characterisation
File Next-Generation Lateral Flow Assays for Rapid Detection of Respiratory Tract Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance	Dual-amplification lateral flow diagnostics for ultrasensitive, power-free detection of RTIs and AMR	Guido Bolognesi, Thanh Nguyen	Theme 2: Diagnostics & Surveillance	Lateral flow assay, gold nanostars, plasmonic amplification, diffusiophoresis, respiratory tract infections, antimicrobial resistance, point-of-care diagnostics, microfluidics, nanodiagnostics
File Nanopore technology for rapid and accurate measurement of antibiotic concentrationsNanopore technology for rapid and accurate measurement of antibiotic concentrations	Single-molecule nanopore sensors for real-time antibiotic quantification in clinical and environmental samples	Nicholas Bell, Kabir Husain	Theme 2: Diagnostics & Surveillance	Nanopore sensing, antibiotic detection, single-molecule analysis, aptamers, AMR surveillance, point-of-care diagnostics, environmental monitoring, biosensors
File Mapping Phage Diversity through Population-Scale Metagenomics in the Hunt for Novel Antimicrobials	Mining metagenomes to uncover next-generation antimicrobial enzymes	Lucy van Dorp, Joanne Santini	Theme 3: Novel Therapies	Phages; Metagenomics; Endolysins; Antimicrobials; Host prediction; CRISPR; Microbial ecology; Evolutionary genomics
File Synergistic Efficacy of a Monoclonal Antibody Therapy with Colistin Against AMR Acinetobacter baumannii	Combining antibodies and antibiotics to combat one of the world’s most dangerous drug-resistant pathogens.	Jeremy Brown, Bart Hoogenboom	Theme 3: Novel Therapies	Acinetobacter baumannii; Monoclonal antibodies; Colistin; Antimicrobial resistance; Atomic force microscopy; RNA sequencing; Synergy; Therapeutics
File Micro and meso level strategies for combating resistant tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases	Peptide-based disruption of mycobacterial defences	Alethea Tabor, Sanjib Bhakta	Theme 3: Novel Therapies	Mycobacteria, tuberculosis, antimicrobial peptides, cyclic peptides, drug resistance, peptide synthesis, mass spectrometry, cell wall metabolism, quorum sensing, combination therapy
File Unravelling the structural diversity of ultra-long CDR loops with antimicrobial potential	Harnessing bovine ultralong CDRs to discover novel antimicrobial peptide scaffolds.	Christine Orengo, Gorka Lasso Cabrera	Theme 3: Novel Therapies	Ultralong CDRs, antibodies, structural bioinformatics, deep learning, antimicrobial peptides, protein modelling, evolutionary analysis, therapeutic discovery
File High-Throughput optimisation of non-viral delivery systems for mucosal mRNA vaccines against pathogenic bacteria	Engineering polymeric nanoparticles for targeted mucosal mRNA vaccine delivery	Julia Rho, Pratik Gurnani	Theme 3: Novel Therapies	mRNA vaccines, mucosal delivery, polymer nanoparticles, high-throughput screening, respiratory infections, antimicrobial resistance, vaccine delivery systems, non-viral vectors
File Machine Learning-Accelerated NMR Platform for Viral RNA Polymerase Inhibitor Discovery	AI-guided NMR screening to fast-track antiviral drug discovery against emerging viral threats	Finn Werner, Chris Waudby	Theme 3: Novel Therapies	RNA polymerase, antiviral drug discovery, NMR spectroscopy, machine learning, fragment screening, ASFV, cryo-EM, laboratory automation, lead optimisation