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Amyloid-beta structure and membrane interactions in Alzheimer’s disease

  • Primary Supervisor: Prof John H Viles
  • Co-supervisor(s):  Dr Aravindan Ilangovan
  • Studentship Funding: Awaiting CSC Funding Decision
  • Application Deadline: 28th January 2026
  • PhD Programme: PhD Biological Sciences


Project Overview 

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) directly affects 30 million people worldwide, a number set to triple by 2050.  Central to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the misfolding and assembly of a small peptide, 42 amino acids in length; the amyloid-β peptide (Aβ). The Aβ monomers self-assemble into a range of prefibrillar oligomeric molecular structures which Viles et al has recently characterized by cryo-EM (1), these oligomers then form amyloid fibrils observed in AD patients.  The Viles group have shown Aβ assemblies bind to and disrupt lipid bilayers (2) (3) (4) and has recently published a review in this area (5). These oligomers can disrupt membrane integrity and cause a loss of cellular Ca2+ homeostasis which culminates in neuronal toxicity (1) (6).  The rate at which Aβ self-assembles into cytotoxic oligomers and fibrils is influenced by factors such as membrane composition (7) or other amyloid proteins that can cross-seed fibril formation (6).  There is much to understand about the molecular mechanisms of Aβ cytotoxicity, in particular, how the different assembly forms interact with membranes. The structural and mechanistic details of these processes will therefore be further investigated.

Your PhD can be divided into three work-packages/objectives:

  1. Aβ oligomer structure and its interaction with cellular membranes
  2. Understanding how Aβ oligomers impact cell membrane permeability
  3. Kinetics of Aβ assembly, the impact of amyloid cross-seeding and lipids


Research Environment

The biochemistry department is well placed to carry out the biophysical measurements planned, including an excellent TEM facility at QMUL, with a 120 keV, high contrast microscope and a recently purchased JEOL 2100plus 200 keV cryo-TEM. Within the Viles lab, equipment includes two dedicated micro-plate readers, vital for fibril growth kinetics and optical spectrometers (CD, fluorescence). In addition, there are world-class cell-culture facilities, confocal and super-resolution microscopy.  You will enter a well-funded vibrant research group, currently with £600,000 of external funding as principle investigator. Viles has supervised 17 PhD students, as principle supervisor, and has a 100% pass rate.

For further details see: Prof John Viles: Centre for Molecular Cell Biology

Find out more about the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences on our website.

Keywords:  Alzheimer’s; Electron microscopy; |Membranes; Amyloid; Proteins; Misfolding  

Funding & Eligibility

Queen Mary University of London has partnered with the China Scholarship Council (CSC) to offer a joint scholarship programme to enable Chinese students to study for a PhD programme at Queen Mary.  Under the scheme, Queen Mary will provide scholarships to cover all tuition fees, whilst the CSC will provide living expenses and one return flight ticket to successful applicants.

Applicants must:

  • Be applying for CSC funding.
  • Be a citizen and permanent resident of the People’s Republic of China and hold a Chinese passport.
  • Satisfy all eligibility criteria set out by the CSC and must refer to the CSC website for full details.
  • Apply to QMUL by 28th January 2026. Late applications will not be considered.
  • Submit ALL required documentation, including evidence of their English Language ability ahead of the CSC application deadline.

CSC application rules differ slightly for domestic applicants (students applying from China) and overseas applicants (students applying from overseas). Therefore, ALL applicants are advised to see the CSC website for full details on eligibility and conditions on the scholarship. 

Entry Requirements

We are looking for candidates to have or expecting to receive a first or upper-second class honours degree and a Master’s degree in an area relevant to the project such as [Biochemistry; Biophysics; Structural Biology; Neuro-Chemistry]

Knowledge of: Protein-structure; Protein-biophysics; Electron-microscopy; Cell-culture, would be advantageous but are not required.

You must meet the IELTS requirements for your course and upload evidence before CSC’s application deadline, ideally by 1st March 2026. You are therefore strongly advised to sit an approved English Language test as soon as possible, where your IELTS test must still be valid when you enrol for the programme.

Please find further details on our English Language requirements page.

How to Apply

Formal applications must be submitted through our online form by 28th January 2026 for consideration. Please identify yourself as a ‘CSC Scholar’ in the funding section of the application.

Applicants are required to submit the following documents:

  • Your CV
  • Personal Statement
  • Evidence of English Language e.g.) IELTS Certificate
  • Copies of academic transcripts and degree certificates
  • References 

Find out more about our application process on our SBBS website.

Informal enquiries about the project can be sent to Prof John H Viles

Admissions-related queries can be sent to sbbs-pgadmissions@qmul.ac.uk 

Shortlisted applicants will be invited for a formal interview by the supervisor. If you are successful in your QMUL application, then you will be issued an QMUL Offer Letter, conditional on securing a CSC scholarship along with academic conditions still required to meet our entry requirements.

Once applicants have obtained their QMUL Offer Letter, they should then apply to CSC for the scholarship with the support of the supervisor.

For further information, please go to the QMUL China Scholarship Council webpage.

Apply online


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