PhD Spotlight Competition 2022

Structure and Composition of an Intercellular Channel in Sporulating Bacillus subtilis

Sonam Sidhu, Biology and Physics

I’m currently in the final year of my PhD in Biology, as part of the BBSRC White Rose DTP Partnership. I’m interested in using biophysical tools to understand biological problems. My project focuses on identifying the structure and composition of an intercellular channel in the sporulating, soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis. The stoichiometry of subunits in this channel is unknown and no in-vivo experiments have been performed to address the stoichiometry of this channel in living cells. Slimfield microscopy has been used to determine the stoichiometry of other complexes and will be used to address this problem.

Bottling It All Up: Using parasite population biology to identify drug and vaccine targest in leishmaniasis

Ciara Loughrey, HYMS & York Biomedical Research Institute

Ciara is a second year PhD student in the labs of Jeremy Mottram and Paul Kaye. She is working on an interdisciplinary project aiming to understand host-parasite interactions and dissemination dynamics in the neglected tropical disease visceral leishmaniasis, which combines her interests in immunology, parasitology, mathematics and biophysics. 

She completed her MSci degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Glasgow, 2020, which included a placement working in Respiratory Immunology at GSK. Ciara is also involved in science outreach, having been involved in various projects including an innovative collaboration between Surge Street Theatre and the Wellcome Trust.

Impact of road traffic injuries on household economic welfare: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Oliver Kaonga, Centre for Health Economics

Oliver Kaonga is a third year PhD student in Economics based in the Centre for Health Economics (CHE). Having realized that health is influenced by determinants beyond the traditional conception of the health sector, his PhD research explores the impact of road transport externalities on health in low and middle-income countries. Using micro datasets, he investigates the effects of transport activities and policy on health outcomes and welfare at the household level.

Exploring the social mobility and influence of women in Roman public life from the 1st to the 3rd centuries A.D.

Melissa Kays, Archaeology

Melissa Kays is a first year PhD student seeking to explore the unique regional circumstances which allowed Roman women in Italy, North Africa, and Asia Minor to increase their social power within their communities in the Roman Empire from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. Following the completion of her master’s dissertation with a similar focus, Melissa seeks to expand on her conclusions through the addition of over a hundred case studies.

Focusing on specific case studies in these regions distant from, but politically and socially tied to, the empire’s capital in Rome allows for a comparison of the situations which created the most independent women, while also highlighting the more oppressive forces at hand to limit women’s participation in public life. Independence here can mean a variety of things, but this research focuses on women’s access to the funds, power, and influence needed to commission public buildings as part of the Roman system of euergetism, which normally was a male-dominated forum for competition and honour.

The Representation of Disability in Disney Animated Films: Using Models of Disability as Pedagogical Tools for Analysis

Jess Gibson, Education

Jess Gibson is a third year PhD student in the Department of Education at the University of York. Her research examines the representation of disability in Disney animated films through the lens of disability studies. Through the use of a content analysis and additional film analysis, Jess explores the myriad ways in which impairment and disability is depicted in Disney. Her research interests more broadly include Disney, popular culture, theme parks, disability studies, social justice and education.

She has written several academic blog posts on disability in film including the use of facial disfigurement in James Bond villains for The Conversation and the representation of autism in Pixar’s short film Loop for Fantasy/Animation. She has also presented at several conferences including the Northeast Popular Culture Association, UBC’s Graduate Student Children’s and YA Literature and Culture Conference and Two Decades of Shrek: An Academic Symposium. Throughout her PhD she has worked as a caption editing assistant and a research assistant on two projects at the University of York and is working on a chapter about disability in Dumbo for an upcoming edited collection on Animal Heroes.