About the Project
Musculoskeletal injuries and diseases represent a significant global health burden, affecting millions of individuals across their lifetime. As a potential therapeutic option, tissue engineering has emerged as an exiting technology to explore. Traditional methods focus on the combination of a prescribed triad of scaffolds, cells and signalling molecules to fabricate lab-grown tissues for potential clinical application. While research in this area is ongoing, other proposed methodologies are currently being explored.
This project will focus on an innovate subset of tissue engineering known as scaffoldless macrotissue engineering. Instead of using traditional scaffold-based approaches, macrotissues are created through the fusion of cellular spheroids as building blocks to create viable tissue constructs up to several millimetres in size [1]. These macrotissues can be cultured in vitro and possess important characteristics of developing musculoskeletal tissues [1-3].
Building on an established protocol [1], this interdisciplinary project will focus on engineering and characterising bone macrotissues as potential bone-replacements or in vitro models of injury and disease. This exciting, multidisciplinary research endeavour will involve collaborative work across three distinct research groups at the University of Edinburgh and contribute to a growing partnership in the area of musculoskeletal anatomy, tissue engineering research and multiscale functional analysis to advance bone development and repair.
The project will include the following training and techniques:
- 2D cell culture
- 3D cell culture
- Microscopy (light, fluorescent, confocal)
- Molecular biology (RT-PCR, Sequencing)
- Histological and immunohistological analysis
- Mechanical analysis
- Micro-CT imaging
This 4 year PhD project is part of a competition funded by EASTBIO BBSRC Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP). Detailed guidance on the application process, and the EASTBIO Application and Reference Forms can be found at How to Apply | Biology.
Please send your completed EASTBIO Application Form along with a copy of your academic transcripts (as a pdf) to [contact details available in the full listing]. You should also contact your referees and ask them to submit their references (on the EASTBIO reference form template) to [contact details available in the full listing] by the application deadline of 16th November 2026.
Funding Notes
This opportunity is open to UK and international students and provides funding covering stipend and UK level tuition fees. The University of Edinburgh covers the difference between home and international fees meaning that the EASTBIO DTP offers fully-funded studentships to all appointees. There is a cap on the number of international students the DTP recruits. It is therefore important for us to know from the outset which fees status category applicants will fall under when applying to our University.
Please refer to UKRI website and Annex B of the UKRI Training Grant Terms and Conditions for full eligibility criteria.
References
- Prabhakaran V, Melchels FPW, Murray LM, Paxton JZ. Engineering three-dimensional bone macro-tissues by guided fusion of cell spheroids. Front Endocrinol 2023 Dec 19;14:1308604. doi: 10.3389/fendo.[contact details available in the full listing].
- Prabhakaran V, Sobrattee A, Melchels FPW, Murray LM, Paxton JZ. Scaffold-free tenogenic macro-tissues engineered by multi-layered bioassembly of rat tendon fibroblast spheroids. Biofabrication. 2026 Apr 1;18(2). doi: 10.1088/[contact details available in the full listing]/ae55ce.
- Prabhakaran V, Paxton JZ. A Spheroid-Based In Vitro Model to Generate the Zonal Organisation of the Tendon-to-Bone Enthesis. Organoids. 2026; 5(1):7. https://doi.org/10.3390/organoids5010007
