LSI Doctoral Training Centres: University of Manchester

The University of Manchester is building a new doctoral training centre to train the next generation of scientists who can bridge biology, computing, and engineering. Systems biology treats living cells not as a collection of parts but as integrated, dynamic systems—like a city’s transport network or a factory’s production line. Until recently, biologists and computer scientists rarely worked together closely enough to model how genes, proteins, and metabolic reactions interact as a whole. This centre fills that gap by embedding PhD students in a dedicated institute that already combines molecular biology, high-performance computing, and text-mining tools. If successful, it will produce researchers who can build predictive computer models of cells—models that could one day help design more efficient biofuels, optimise fermentation in brewing and pharmaceuticals, or predict how a disease-causing bacterium will respond to a new drug. The centre builds on existing industrial partnerships and a recent influx of leading systems biologists, including the holder of a new AstraZeneca Chair. This is primarily a training initiative, but the fundamental science it enables—understanding how living systems compute and regulate themselves—has historically led to unexpected applications, from metabolic engineering to personalised medicine.