About the Project

A 3 Year Fully-Funded (non-clinical) PhD Studentship at Imperial College London

Expected start date: 01/10/2026

We wish to appoint a non-medical PhD student to carry out a project on the role of pericytes during asthma. Pericytes are structural cells surrounding endothelial cells around blood vessels. Pericyte dysfunction or loss has been documented in numerous cardiovascular disorders such as ischemic heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, pulmonary arterial hypertension, and cancer. The importance of pericytes during chronic lung diseases such as asthma and COPD remains elusive with very few studies analysing their role.

This is an exciting opportunity for an ambitious student to conduct interdisciplinary research using both advanced transgenic mouse models as well as patient samples. The PhD student will be registered at Imperial College in the National Heart and Lung Institute, and the work will be carried at the Hammersmith campus.

The Project

Defining the Immune Functions of Lung Pericytes and Their Dysregulation in Asthma

This persistent inflammation in the airways, along with tissue remodelling and vascular changes, are fundamental components of chronic lung diseases such as asthma. Whilst the inflammatory cascade, including mast cells, eosinophils and Th2 cells, is well established, not much is known about the structural cells supporting the maintenance of blood vessels. Pericytes are mural cells that are directly in contact with the endothelial cells in several tissues, including the pulmonary capillary and post-capillary network. Pericytes’ primary functions are to regulate blood flow, angiogenesis and recent evidence suggests a role in immune surveillance.

The proposed challenging project is to define the role of pericytes in the lungs. Recently, the Joulia lab has demonstrated that upon allergen-induced inflammation, the subsequent immune cell activation leads to pericyte damage and loss of lung vascular function (Joulia et al. JCI 2024). These results strongly suggest that chronic airway inflammation is linked to vascular damage which has major clinical implications. However, the extent of pericyte involvement in the disease pathology is unclear and their immune functions are not well characterised.

Aim of project:

In this project, the PhD student will decipher the role of pericytes in the lungs during asthma. The hypothesis is that pericytes regulate inflammation and tissue organisation by producing chemokines and extracellular matrix (ECM). We will answer the following questions:

What are lung pericytes and how do they interact with immune cells?
Are chemokines and ECM produced by pericytes critical during allergic airway disease?
Where and how do human lung pericytes influence asthma pathophysiology?

This project will employ the latest imaging tools such as single-cell spatial transcriptomics, 3D multiplex confocal imaging and complex mouse models.

Impact:

Pericytes are abundantly present between the vasculature and the airway interface. However, there is limited existing information about them, and exploring their functions during inflammation will not only enable better understanding of the disease but also how to effectively develop pharmacological interventions. These research aims will provide, for the first time, an atlas of pericyte populations and their interactions in health and asthmatic inflammation.