Find out more about previous participants' experiences by reading our STEM Research Projects 2025 Programme (PDF, 249kB). Please note that this timetable is subject to change. 

If you need to view the programme outline in another format, email bristol-summer@bristol.ac.uk.

Learn more about our Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. 

Contact us at bristol-summer@bristol.ac.uk for more information.

Motivational deficits such as apathy syndrome are prevalent across a wide range of neurological and neurodegenerative disorders. They have a significant impact on patient quality of life and severity of disease progression. Despite this clear clinical burden, there is currently no agreed treatment approach for this symptom domain. Animal models offer the opportunity to understand this behaviour and develop more effective treatment approaches. At the preclinical level, motivation is traditionally assessed in operant tests and requires food restriction and prolonged training times to motivate the rodent to perform a conditioned response for a food reward. However, these conditions may not necessarily translate to motivational deficit experienced by patients.

We explore our environment, engage in hobbies and socialise in the absence of a tangible external reward. This form of motivation is termed intrinsic motivation and may offer better insight into the nature of motivational deficit in psychiatric disease. However, our understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying intrinsic motivation and how it differs from extrinsic motivation remains poorly understood. This is crucial, as recent work has shown that clinically relevant drugs can have opposing effects on these different forms of motivation. In this project you will utilise a novel behavioural paradigm where mice are presented with both extrinsic and intrinsically rewarding options which require effort to obtain.

You will utilise a systemic pharmacological approach to begin to understand how neurochemical systems contribute to these different forms of motivation. This project will advance our insight into the potential neurobiological divergence of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

This project is supervised by Professor Emma Robinson.

Non-invasive brain stimulation offers a way to change brain function without surgery. One particular technique that is receiving increasing attention is transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (tFUS). This approach leverages acoustic energy emitted by an ultrasound transducer, which crosses the skull and modifies neural activity. The potential therapeutic applications are vast. However, in order to effectively apply the technique as a medical intervention, we need to understand the cellular and molecular effects it has on neurons and neural circuits. This project will therefore explore the molecular consequences of ultrasound stimulation, focusing on the hippocampus. We will use a variety of molecular biology and electrophysiology approaches to understanding how and why ultrasound changes neural function.

This project is supervised by Dr. Daniel Whitcomb. 

Normal memory function relies on complex interactions between different brain regions. Previous work in our laboratory has found that synaptic inputs from both the hippocampus (HPC) and the thalamic nucleus reuniens (NRe) into the lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) are critical for the encoding of the association between an object and the location in which it was encountered. At present there is little understanding of which neuronal populations within LEC receive synaptic input from both the HPC and NRe, this project will aim to address this lack of information. The project will use transsynaptic anterograde tracing to label cells in LEC that receive synaptic inputs from HPC, NRe or both regions, this will be combined with immunofluorescence staining of specific cell populations in LEC to identify which cell types receive neuronal input from both brain regions.

As a member of the research team, you will gain experience in brain sectioning, immunostaining, fluorescent imaging and image analysis, there will also be an opportunity for you to observe other laboratory activities such as stereotaxic surgery, animal behaviour and in vitro electrophysiology.

This project is supervised by Professor Clea Warburton. 

Research in Rare Disorders offers an opportunity to engage in cutting-edge research focused on some of the most complex and underserved areas of medicine. Rare disorders affect millions worldwide yet remain underfunded and under-researched. CASK (Mori et al 2023), CDKL5 (Van Bergen et al 2022), WNK1 (Kurth 1993) and DYRK1a (Zhu et al 2022) are multiple-domain kinases with important neurodevelopmental functions and mutations linked to rare human diseases. You will use the power of Drosophila genetics to perform a functional screen of different kinase mutants in flies (Marcogliese et al 2022). The effect on brain development, synaptic plasticity, learning, circadian rhythms, sleep and epilepsy will be determined using mutants and assays. Mechanistic characterisation will be performed including at the level of gene expression (using qRT-PCR), protein function, neuronal morphology, activity, proliferation and degeneration. The potential of the kinases as therapeutic targets will be explored by performing drug screens (Zhu et al 2022).

You will learn skills and knowledge necessary to make meaningful contributions to the field of rare disease research. The project will offer both theoretical training, hands-on lab experience and clinical experience, involving setting up, delivering, and analysing patient registries and associated clinical trials. You will get a deep understanding of the challenges faced by affected individuals and their families. Students will be supported by Dr Sam Amin with clinical aspects of the project and working with Public Patient Inclusion and Engagement groups (https://caskresearch.org/, https://curecdkl5.org.uk/ and https://www.dyrk1a.org/). For instance, to survey the prevalence of the different kinase mutations in the UK and EU, their accompanying symptoms and current treatments as well as the research priorities of these different communities. You will have the opportunity to work with molecular modellers predicting the effect of disease associated mutations on protein function and patho-physiology. You will also get the opportunity to learn how to engage with collaborative research, industry partners and pharmaceutical companies in this research area through the Neurodevelopment Hub.

This project is supervised by Professor James Hodge. 

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading form of dementia. Despite many decades of research, we are still without a disease-modifying treatment or cure. We need to better understand the underlying molecular mechanisms of AD pathology to better direct therapy development. This project will explore the effects of AD pathology on the synapse in the hippocampus. We will model pathological conditions and test the contributions specific kinases make to synaptic degeneration. We will use a combination of molecular biology techniques and electrophysiology.

This project is supervised by Dr. Daniel Whitcomb. 

Atypical emotional and social functioning is a key feature of many mental health conditions. For example, mood disorders are characterised by changes in habitual patterns of emotional expression, perception, and social interaction. However, we do not yet understand which socio-emotional processes are disrupted, nor how these disruptions give rise to the interpersonal difficulties observed in these condition. Traditional approaches to studying emotional function rely largely on self-report measures, which are limited in their ability to capture the dynamic nature of emotional expression, perception, and their consequences for social interaction.

Our project aims to identify objective bio-behavioural markers of emotional functioning using a novel real-time dyadic social interaction paradigm developed in our group. This approach allows rich continuous and multimodal measurement of autonomic responses (heart rate, respiration, and skin conductance), facial expressions, and self-reported mood.

This project is supervised by Dr Hélio Clemente José Cuve. 

In my lab, we record electrophysiological signals from the stomach (electrogastrography) and the brain (electroencephalography). We do so in several projects, one of which you could contribute to:

1) Decoding emotions evoked by music
2) The stomach during physical and moral disgust
3) The role of disgust in fussy eating

These projects offer the opportunity to learn about the recording and analysis of human physiological data. To help with this, you will also have the opportunity to learn relevant Python programming. (No prior coding experience necessary!)

This project is supervised by Dr. Edwin Dalmaijer. 

Activities such as gambling or video games can be seen as behavioral addictions: behaviors that people repeat compulsively despite experiencing harms. However, researchers are debating exactly which behaviors should be considered as having addictive potential, since expanding too far risks "overpathologizing" everyday life. I am looking to review literature to make the argument that behaviors pose their greatest addiction risk when people are subject to some "supernormal stimuli" -- a technologically-enhanced version of the behavior compared to what occurs in nature. I plan to co-author a peer reviewed think piece alongside the student on this topic.

This project is supervised by Dr. Philip Newall. 

This project investigates the relationship between reproductive events and hormones, and women’s mental and physical health outcomes in autoimmune disorders. Using secondary data sources, including ecological momentary data, it explores how key reproductive events such as menstruation and menopause are associated with changes in health among women with and without autoimmune disorders. The study aims to better understand temporal patterns and symptom variation linked to hormonal transitions, contributing to improved insight into sex-specific influences on autoimmune disease experience and management.

This project is supervised by Dr. Kayleigh Easey. 

Adders (Vipera berus) living in the Avalon Marsh area of the Brue Valley are the only lowland adder population in Somerset, UK. This small collection of adders is highly fragmented due to peat digging activities which have changed the landscape from fens, mires and raised bogs where historically adders thrived, into that of large lakes and read beds where adders struggle to survive. Monitoring by The Reptile and Amphibian Group (RAG) of the Somerset Wildlife Trust (SWT) has identified six metapopulations in the area where adders survive but due to the small population numbers in each site it is unclear if these populations (often <10 individuals) can be sustained in the long-term (Gardener et al., 2019).

An additional threat to this population has emerged in the form of conservation organisations who wish to ‘re-wet’ peatlands for carbon capture. Given this practice focuses on areas where peat has not been removed it coincides with the remaining sites of adder inhabitation. Raising water levels is likely to cut off existing channels of connectivity and result in greater isolation of these already fragmented metapopulations hence there is a need for greater understanding of how adders are using these areas and how interrelated these metapopulations are.

Rectal swabs from 30 individual adders across different sites within the Avalon Marsh area have been collected over the last 12-24 months. The aim of this project is to extract DNA from these pre-collected samples and perform DNA sequencing of mitochondria and microsatellites as per Ball et al., 2024, to determine the interrelatedness of the adders living in these sites. It is hoped that the study will confirm that these meta-populations of adders are connected, supporting the need to protect precious corridors that currently exist between sites and providing evidence to appeal to land owners to consider adder welfare in ongoing conservation plans. Alternatively, if populations are found to already be isolated, and restoring connectivity is not possible, then the data generated will inform relocation efforts.

This project is supervised by Dr. Karen Mifsud. 

Cognition is the mental process by which an individual recalls information, adapts to experiences, understands situations, and makes appropriate decisions. The hippocampus is a critical area of the brain associated with cognitive function. The extracellular matrix (ECM) glycosaminoglycan hyaluronan (HA) is a major component of the hippocampus and has been reported as contributing to hippocampal-dependent cognition. An interesting feature of HA is that its function depends on its molecular weight; with short chains of HA exerting stimulatory actions such as inducing proliferation, inflammation and angiogenesis whereas longer forms are more stabilizing, facilitating adaption of networks, cellular maturation and conferring anti-inflammatory actions. 

This project is supervised by Dr. Karen Mifsud. 

My research group is exploring animal emotions as a critical component of their welfare. Since it is impossible to ask animals how they feel because of the lack of verbal reports, we are taking a cognitive approach that aims to provide the closest possible information about these subjective states - designing experiments allowing to get as close as possible to the animal's perspective. For example, we have recently showed that calves show a learnt preference for a place associated with additional pain mitigation following disbudding, indicating that they very much benefit from longer-lasting pain control. 
We are welcoming students to join us over the Summer. They would be integrated within a growing young team of graduate students running different projects on this topic. There may be opportunities for students to lead their own project (tentative idea: exploring whether gentle handling leads to lasting positive emotions in calves), depending on students' motivation and capacity. This area of research is key to meaningfully improve the welfare of animals kept for food production which is essential to move towards more sustainable agriculture systems.

This project is supervised by Dr. Ben Lecorps. 

Mycobacteria can significantly impact human and animal health. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the primary causative agent of tuberculosis in humans, while Mycobacterium bovis infects a wide range of animal species and can be transmitted to humans. These bacteria persist intracellularly within macrophages, triggering a chronic immune response characterized by granuloma formation. Granulomas are organized aggregates of immune cells, including macrophages, epithelioid cells, multinucleated giant cells, and lymphocytes, which serve to contain bacterial spread and represents a dynamic interaction between bacterial evasion strategies and host immune defences, playing a crucial role in disease progression and pathogenesis. Granuloma formation is a hallmark of mycobacterial infections and differs greatly between species with critical differences in the immune cell population and cell distribution. 

The principal aim of this project is evaluating and comparing host-pathogen interaction mechanisms through the study of the granuloma cell composition considering different mycobacteria and animal species. This will allow us to characterise the immune response, identify and evaluate interspecies differences that can potentially explain an increased susceptibility to the mycobacterial infection and prompt further epidemiological and diagnostic studies. In particular the composition of granulomas will be assessed considering the relative presence and abundance of immune cell populations such as neutrophils, macrophages, subpopulations of T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes and other important granuloma cell components  such as fibroblasts. A cytokine panel will also be defined and tested. A T lymphocyte driven immune response has been linked in previous studies to a more efficient immune response against mycobacteria in comparison to a B lymphocyte driven immune response. Other aspects associated to a less effective immune response to take in consideration are also the relative abundance of neutrophils and presence and structure of the fibrous capsule.

This project is supervised by Dr. Benedetta Amato. 

This work forms part of the DECIDE project, which aims to support circular and sustainable food systems by developing a digital hub for the apple supply chain. DECIDE brings together researchers and industry partners to explore how waste products can be reused and how digital tools can support better environmental and economic decision‑making.

The proposed research internship focusses on apple pomace, a by‑product cider making, and its potential reuse as a livestock feed. A feeding trial has already been completed in dairy heifers comparing a standard (control) diet with a diet containing apple pomace. Methane emissions and animal performance (liveweight, liveweight gain, and body condition score) have been collected and analysed. Faecal samples collected during the trial form the main focus of this studentship. The student will analyse the faecal microbiome to investigate how adding apple pomace to the diet influences microbial communities. The project provides hands‑on experience in microbiome analysis within a broader sustainability and circular‑economy context.

This project is supervised by Dr. Daniel Enriquez-Hidalgo. 

Cancer cells undergo two contrasting physical conditions during metastasis: either in the tissue matrix or in the fluid such as blood and lymph. We are interested in the acquisition of malignancy in the metastasising process through the physical growth conditions. Our studies particularly focus on the development of cancer stem cell features and drug resistance.     

This project is supervised by Dr. Nobue Itasaki. 

The Oral Microbiology research group conducts studies into the survival strategies of microorganisms, their colonisation and virulence factors, and the interactions that occur between microbes or between microbe and host, especially in the development of polymicrobial communities (biofilms). These studies impinge on many aspects of both oral and systemic health and disease, including the growing issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Key research areas in which bespoke projects can be offered include:

• Identification of the molecular mechanisms that underpin bacterial and fungal biofilm formation and of polymicrobial community development, in terms of both physical interactions (microbe-microbe or microbe-host), communication/signalling networks, and overall biofilm architecture
• Understanding the mechanistic basis for high levels of AMR associated with biofilm formation, and the development of new strategies to detect and to prevent biofilm-associated infections
• Deciphering the host-bacteria interplay that facilitates bacterial survival in blood or saliva and the progression of cardiovascular disease
• Investigating the structure-function relationships of bacterial adhesins with regards to colonisation and pathogenesis and their potential to serve as therapeutic targets to combat infection

This project is supervised by Dr. Angela Nobbs and Dr. Nihal Bandara. For more information on this project, please see the unit catalogue. 

The Armstrong Group specializes in the development of biomaterials and engineered tissues for in vitro modelling and regenerative medicine. Based in Bristol Medical School at the University of Bristol, we innovate interdisciplinary approaches to develop bio-responsive hydrogels, 3D bioprinting approaches, and ultrasound bioassembly technologies that can guide the growth of brain, cancer, cardiac and musculoskeletal tissues.

We are seeking a STEM student with a curious mindset and passion for science to work on a new project studying how mechanical forces regulate breast cancer cells. In the body, these cells undergo constant stretching as an individual breathes, which affects how the cells grow and develop. We will use state-of-the-art equipment to subject breast cancer cells to similar forces and then quantify these changes using molecular biology techniques (immunostaining and RT-qPCR). The knowledge gained in this project will be used to direct a new biotechnology that we are developing to modulate this bio-mechanical response, and ultimately we hope that this might deliver a new approach to better understand and treat breast cancer. The student will be fully trained and supported by Dr Armstrong as well as a PhD student working with these cells. During the six-week period, they will fully integrate within the group, attending group meetings and technical discussions, and will thus be exposed to a wide range of cutting-edge scientific knowledge extending beyond this project.

This project is supervised by Dr. James Armstrong.