Adaptive Organismal Biology MPhil – (M.Phil.)

The MPhil is a one-year research degree where students get the opportunity to study a specific research project. The MPhil degree can act as a stand-alone degree for applicants who would like to gain experience in a specific area, or can be linked to a PhD programme. Rather than register on a direct entry 3 or 4 year PhD, some postgraduates may first register on a one-year MPhil programme. Subsequently students may then wish to transfer on to a full PhD programme with a further 2 or 3 years of study.
Adaptive Organismal Biology seeks to understand the responses of complex biological systems to environmental challenges. Research involves comparative and model hopping approaches at whole organism, tissue, cell and gene expression levels. At The University of Manchester there are three main focuses of research within Adaptive Organismal Biology
The Integrative and Comparative Physiology group study torpor and lung surfactant in arousal of bats, sustainability of fish and reptile heart function in changing thermal environments and osmoregulatory physiology of fish migrating between sea and freshwater.
The Aquatic Integrative Biology group examine bioavailability and toxicology of aluminium in freshwater snails and crayfish, while developing novel techniques (eg Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy analysis) to resolve lake plankton population dynamics.
The Biomechanics group combines computational simulation analysis of bipedal movement in hominids, mechanical investigations of anti-herbivore defence in grasses and in vivo studies of respiratory movements in birds.