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Fully Funded Joint NIHR Maudsley BRC CMHND-DCAP PhD Studentship

  • DeadlineDeadline: 16th March 2025 (23:59 GMT)
  • London, All EnglandLondon, All England

Description

Start Date: 1st October

Award(s): 1 fully funded 3-year studentship jointly funded by the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre's Theme in Child Mental Health & Neurodevelopmental Disorders and the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Mode of attendance: Full-time

Open to: Home candidates

We have two projects for a potential student to choose from. Please refer to individual projects for full information about each project.

Project 1 – Towards precision mental health care: prediction of the lifetime course of major depressive disorder and ADHD in children and young people. 

Supervisors

Dr Gonzalo Salazar de Pablo, Senior Clinical Lecturer (gonzalo.salazar_de_pablo@kcl.ac.uk)

Professor Katya Rubia, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (katya.rubia@kcl.ac.uk)

Dr Johnny Downs, Senior Clinical Lecturer (johnny.down@kcl.ac.uk)

Aims

Advance precision mental health for children and adolescents (C&A) with major depressive disorder (MDD) and ADHD by developing prognostic tools to predict the likely course C&A with MDD.

Specific aims

1) Identify socio-demographic and clinical features in C&A experiencing MDD that predict future trajectories of MDD.

2) Evaluate whether the integration of neurobiological predictors increases the accuracy of prediction models.

3)  Explore if novel methods of mapping brain function and connectivity that are more ‘child-friendly’ than conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), can identify predictors of ADHD course.

Rationale

In C&A, MDD is often associated with long-term adverse outcomes. Treatment guidelines do not consider likely future trajectory, which stems from the current inability to predict whether a C&A person with MDD will have symptoms that persist, will show a relapsing-remitting course or experience a full recovery. 

This PhD aims to advance the field by answering two empirical questions. First, can we provide a clinically useful prognostic tool by leveraging clinical data linked to socio-environmental and educational databases?  Secondly, does the addition of either genomic features or data on childhood brain structure and function further boost the accuracy of prediction?  A clinically useful prognostic tool would represent a major step towards precision mental health care.

We will leverage new ‘child friendly’ approaches to mapping brain function that allow us to include children who often cannot tolerate conventional MRI, such as children with severe hyperactive symptoms.  These technologies, available at the new Clinical Research Centre of the Pears Maudsley Centre include optically-pumped magnetoencephalography (OPM-MEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).  We will acquire maps of brain function and connectivity using these technologies and determine if they reveal similar predictors of the course of ADHD symptom as those revealed by conventional MRI.   

Methods and project plan

WP1: Identify features that predict the course of MDD. We will use SLaM data for internal validation and Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) cohort for external validations (including around 1,000 C&A with MDD and ≥4 observations). Risk prediction models will be developed.

WP2: Integrate neural features into predictive models and determine if the addition of genomic and/or childhood neural features boosts predictive power. Discovery cohort will be tABCD cohort and cohorts based in Canada, Brazil and the UK will be used for external validation.

WP3: Leverage novel imaging tools to map neural circuitry in those with ADHD, determining if we can detect similar predictors of outcome as those revealed by conventional MRI.  We will use technologies that allow some degree of movement, such as OPM- Magnetoencephalography and fNIRS.

Expected outputs

At least four publications:

A/WP1:

Manuscript 1: Systematic review/meta-analysis of putative risk factors for MDD trajectories in C&A.

B/WP1 & 2

Prognostic models for outcomes of C&A with MDD (persistent, relapsing and remitting) based on deep clinical and contextual phenotyping.  A manuscript exploring the addition of genomic and neural data.

C/WP3: Pilot data collected using novel multimodal methods on C&A, with ADHD and initial exploration of presence of predictors, drawing contrasts with those identified using conventional MRI.

Project 2 - Identifying ‘biotypes’ to guide treatment choice in ADHD

Supervisors

Dr Nicoletta Adamo, Clinical Senior Lecturer (nicoletta.adamo@kcl.ac.uk)

Prof Gustavo Sudre, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (gustavo.sudre@kcl.ac.uk)

Prof Chiara Nosarti, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (chiara.nosarti@kcl.ac.uk)

Aims and Rationale

This project aims to identify distinct profiles ('biotypes') that predict treatment response in childhood ADHD, improving upon the current 'one size fits all' approach. The goal is to match each child to their optimal treatment based on clinical, cognitive, and neural features. Current ADHD treatment approaches have remained largely unchanged for 30 years, relying on trial and error to find effective interventions. Accurate prognostic models for ADHD which could assist clinicians in the treatment selection are urgently needed.

Specific aims

1)     Analyse clinical and psychosocial predictors of ADHD treatment response using NHS mental health care data

2)     Identify neural circuit patterns that predict response to different ADHD treatments

3)     Evaluate new 'child-friendly' brain mapping methods as alternatives to conventional MRI to identify neural biotypes

Project Structure (Three Work Packages):

Work Package (WP) 1: Analysis of NHS mental health records from South London to examine associations between treatment outcomes and various patient characteristics using regression models and statistical learning approaches.

WP2: Use existing MRI data to detect distinct neural circuit alterations ('biotypes') in ADHD patients and test if these predict treatment response, utilizing AI/machine learning and clustering approaches. 

WP3: Pilot study of approximately 130 youth with severe ADHD using newer, more child-friendly imaging technologies (OPM-MEG and fNIRS) to map neural circuitry and compare findings with conventional MRI results.

Expected outputs

WP1 (months 1-4): systematic review and meta-analysis of biotyping approaches used in child psychiatry.

WP1 (months 4-8): manuscript on the treatment response prediction analyses conducted on anonymized mental health records.

WP2 (months 9-12): a scoping literature review to identify the target neural circuits grounded in existing neurobiological models of ADHD. 

WP2 (months 13-16): manuscript on the biotypes identified within those diagnosed with ADHD.

WP2 (months 16-24): manuscript on the relationship between biotypes and treatment responsivity.

WP3 (months 24-36): pilot data collected using novel multimodal methods on children and adolescents with ADHD and initial exploration of the presence of biotypes, drawing contrasts with those identified using conventional MRI in WP2.

Entry Requirements

Applicants should have (or be expected to obtain) a bachelor’s degree with 2:1 honours (or Overseas equivalent). A 2:2 degree may be considered only where applicants also offer a master’s with Merit.

Award type and eligibility:

Students will be fully funded for three years full time, to include home tuition fees (studentship not available to Overseas applicants), annual stipend and some research and travel costs. Overseas applicants may apply but will need to cover the difference in fees.

To be treated as a Home student, candidates must meet one of the following criteria:

•    A UK national (meeting residency requirements)
•    Settled status
•    Pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements)
•    Indefinite leave to remain or enter

How To Apply

Applicants must complete and submit an online admissions application, via the admissions portal by midnight (23:59 GMT), 16th March 2025.

On the ‘Choosing a programme’ page, please select Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Research MPhil/PhD (Full-time). Applicants should apply for this programme on King's Apply. 

More information on the department and the programme is available at the departmental prospectus page here: (add link from https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/study/postgraduate-research-programmes, depts under ‘Our Postgraduate research programmes’)

In your application, you will be asked to include:

                 Academic Transcripts - where applicable, academic transcripts must be submitted with the online admissions application

                 Details of your qualifications - you will need to attach copies

                 Details of previous employment - please include your CV

                 A personal statement describing your interests and why you wish to apply for this project. Please include this as an attachment rather than using the text box.

                 Academic References – all admissions applications require one supporting reference. If the applicant is relying on their referees to submit a reference directly to the College after they have submitted their admissions application, then the applicant must ensure that (1) their chosen referee is made aware of the funding deadline (i.e. 7 days from application deadline) and (2) that the reference needs to be sent from an institutional email address.

In the Funding section, please tick box 5 and include the following reference: IoPPN-SLaMBRC-DCAP-25

Please note there is no need to complete the Research Proposal section in your application as the project has already been set. You are welcome to email the project supervisors for more information regarding the project and studentship.

If you have any queries regarding the application process, please contact the Education support team at ioppn.pgr@kcl.ac.uk.

References must be received by the deadline for the applicant to be eligible. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

Closing Date: 16th March 2025 (23:59 GMT)

Interviews: Interviews will take place between 23rd April 2025 and 2nd May 2025, precise date TBC.

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