QMUL Advanced AI for Multi-modal Spatial Biology - PhD Programme

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) has funded Queen Mary University of London, through a Doctoral Focal Award (DFA), to train computational researchers to develop the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for spatial biology.

Spatial biology - declared technology(s) of the year in 2020 and 2024 by the journal Nature Methods – has the potential to provide paradigm-changing insights into the regulation of biological systems and alter our understanding of health and ageing. Critically, spatial biology produces complex high-dimensional multi-modal data not amenable to traditional analytical pipelines and AI is essential to unlock its full potential, yielding solutions applicable across disciplines.

This unique DFA will produce future leaders in computational approaches for spatial biology, developing the latest data science, AI and machine learning (ML) techniques. The students will create new models of how molecules and cells interact to control tissue function, using data comprised of both visual images and single-molecule measurements.

The programme will fund 27 full-time PhD students, with cohorts of nine students each, starting in 2026, 2027, and 2028. They will join research teams from our Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, the Faculty of Science and Engineering and our University Research Institutes, including the Digital Environment Research Institute. The DFA includes partners from University College London, the Francis Crick Institute, and industry, all working at the cutting edge of AI in biomedicine.