Engineering gene drives for pest insect suppression (CHAPMAN_U27DTP)
Key details
- Application Deadline
- 30 November 2026
- Location
- UEA
- Funding Type
- Competition Funded (Home and International)
- Start Date
- 1 October 2027
- Mode of Study
- Full-time
- Programme Type
- PhD
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Welcome to Norwich
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Project Description
"Mediterranean fruitfly (medfly) is a global agricultural pest that causes annual billion-dollar losses and threatens food security. It is predicted to spread to the UK within the next 2 decades due to climate warming. CRISPR-based technologies enable significant advances for population suppression, and gene drives in particular offer promise for self-propagating, sustainable alternatives to pesticides for medfly and other key pests. However, a central obstacle remains: existing drives in medfly work in principle but are not field-ready. Through the receipt of interdisciplinary training, you will build, test and optimise critical components needed to close the gap to field readiness for this innovative control technology.
Based at the UEA, you will gain in-demand skills in CRISPR design, gene drive construction, single-nucleus transcriptomics, quantitative phenotyping and population modelling, supported by placements at Keele (applied agricultural entomology) and Imperial College (gene drives, synthetic biology).
You will develop and apply a split-drive optimisation pipeline, using the separation of Cas9 and gRNA components to directly identify the parameters that govern gene drive performance. A key focus is discrimination and optimisation: isolating which promoters, guides and targets improve homing while suppressing the factors that degrade drive efficiency such as resistance alleles and shadow drive. You will focus initially on optimising components and establishing phenotyping protocols, before moving on to selecting targets to test for field-deployability. Throughout, you will build translational insights.
You will be immersed within a tailored training environment designed to foster innovation and independence. This will equip you with state-of-the-art skills in CRISPR editing, cloning, insect handling, bioinformatics, and modelling, giving you a strong set of varied skills for future career development and ensuring that you are well-prepared to contribute to genetic biocontrol innovations from concept to application.
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Entry Requirements
At least UK equivalence Bachelors (Honours) 2:1. English Language requirement (Faculty of Science equivalent: IELTS 6.5 overall, 6 in each category).
Funding
This project is awarded with a 4-year Norwich Research Park Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership PhD DTP studentship. The studentship includes payment of tuition fees (directly to the University), a stipend to cover living expenses (2026/27 stipend rate: £21,805, and a Research Training Support Grant of £5,000pa for each year of the studentship.
References
Alex Siddall, Tim Harvey-Samuel, Tracey Chapman, Philip T Leftwich. Manipulating insect sex determination pathways for genetic pest management: opportunities and challenges.(2022) Frontiers in Biotechnology and Bioengineering Angela Meccariello, Shibo Hou, Serafima Davydova, James Fawcett, Alexandra Siddall, Philip T Leftwich, Flavia Krsticevic, Philippos A Papathanos, Nikolai Windbichler. Gene drive and genetic sex conversion in the global agricultural pest Ceratitis capitata.(2024) Nature Communications Sebald A.N. Verkuijl, Edward R Ivimey-Cook, Bairu Liu, Michael B Bonsall, Philip T Leftwich^, Nikolai Windbichler. Cross-species meta-analysis reveals determinants of homing gene drive performance.(2026) bioRxiv T Harvey-Samuel, R Kaur, Philip T Leftwich, X Feng, V Gantz, L Alphey. Sequence mismatch between gene-drive and target-site flanking regions significantly impairs homing efficiency in Culex quinquefasciatus (2026) Genetics p.iyag054 Amber SK Hall, Samuel Matthew Shackleton-Chavez, Tracey Chapman, Philip T Leftwich^. A novel polymerase III promoter for gene editing in the agricultural pest Ceratitis capitata. (2026) bioRxiv