About the course

As a DPhil in Musculoskeletal Sciences student, you will spend up to four years (eight years for part-time students) in one of the Botnar Research Centre’s many research groups, working on a research project supervised by one of the principal investigators and your supervisory team. You will take part in the extensive training programme specifically organised for graduate students within the department.

This DPhil programme focuses on various musculoskeletal and/or musculoskeletal-associated disorders. Key research foci include immune mediated inflammatory disease (including rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease), mechano-inflammatory disease (including osteoarthritis and tendinopathy), various bone cancers, infections, epigenetics, metabolism, aging, microbiome, computational and systems biology, as well as tissue engineering, employing a range of approaches from experimental biology and clinical trials to epidemiology and data sciences.

You will develop your research skills during your first year, including compulsory attendance at the Department's fundamentals in biomedical research lectures. During the first term you will develop, in consultation with your supervisor, a training needs plan. Your training will be tailored to your specific project and personal requirements drawing from the vast range of courses available at Oxford and covering specialist scientific methods and transferable skills. Please note that there is no formal taught component of the DPhil in Musculoskeletal Sciences; however, you will develop your research skills through a range of research training in your first year and by attending Departmental/institute journal clubs and seminar series. During the first term there is compulsory attendance at core lectures on a variety of research techniques and foci in the Department including immunology, inflammation, tissue engineering, clinical trial design, epidemiology, rheumatology, orthopaedics, and musculoskeletal diseases. During your first year, you will be expected to attend a minimum of three topic- related modules. Attendance on a two-day Data Analysis: Statistics Designing Clinical Research and Biostatistics course is compulsory to assist you with appropriate research design. As a component of your training, you will be expected to work with your supervisory team to write a research-specific literature review within the first year of your studies.

You will be required to attend and present at annual institute student symposia, not only to develop your presentation skills but also to benefit from feedback and interactions from your peers and senior academics, additionally you will have an opportunity to present at internal institute seminar series and/or journal clubs.