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Assessing the roles of chronic infections, host immunity, and inflammation in aetiology of non-communicable diseases

  • 8 September 2025 to 2 December 2025
  • Project No: D26037
  • DPhil Project 2026
  • China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU)

Background

Several infectious pathogens are well-established carcinogenic agents for certain cancers, for example H. pylori for stomach cancer, HBV/HCV for liver cancer, and HPV for cervical cancer. However, uncertainties persist on their causal relevance for other cancer types, the long-term health consequences of other chronic infections (e.g. certain herpesviruses), and the roles of host immunity, chronic inflammation and pathogen subtypes in the aetiology of cancers and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs). 

Using a multiplex serological panel, data on IgG antibody levels against ~50 antigens from 20 pathogens (including herpes viruses, hepatitis viruses, human polyomaviruses, human papillomaviruses, retroviruses, bacteria and parasites) will be available for ~40,000 China Kadoorie Biobank participants and ~60,000 UK Biobank participants. Together with extensive demographic, lifestyle, genetic, and health outcome data, these serological data will enable comprehensive assessment of the causal roles of multiple pathogen infections in the aetiology of site-specific cancers and other major NCDs. 

research experience, research methods and skills training

The DPhil project will be developed according to the student’s interests and aptitude, with the potential to focus on specific disease(s) or chronic infection of particular pathogen(s), or both. Key research objectives may include:

  1. Examining the associations of chronic infection(s) with risks of disease(s) and the infection-attributable disease burden in both populations;
  2. Evaluating the role of host genetics (e.g. HLA variants) in susceptibility to development of specific types of chronic infection and related disease(s);
  3. Assessing the predictive value of individual and co-infected pathogens, in combination with lifestyle, environmental, and genetic factors, for estimating disease(s) risk across diverse populations.

The student will work within a multi-disciplinary team and will gain experience in a range of epidemiological methods. By the end of the DPhil, the student will be competent to undertake and interpret analyses of large-scale datasets, and to report research findings, including publications in peer-reviewed journals and presentation at scientific conferences.

FIELD WORK, SECONDMENTS, INDUSTRY PLACEMENTS AND TRAINING

The student will be based in NDPH. There are excellent facilities and a world-class community of population health, data science, infectious disease, and genomic medicine researchers. There will be in-house training in epidemiology, statistics, and genetics and opportunities to work with external research institutes. 

PROSPECTIVE STUDENT

The ideal candidate will have a good first degree (≥ 2.1) and postgraduate training (e.g. MSc) in relevant area (e.g. epidemiology, statistics, genetics, biomedical science), with a strong interest in infection-related population health. 

research group