About us
The Institute of Chemical Biology (ICB) EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Chemical Biology: Innovation for the Life Sciences is a postgraduate training programme, which forms the heart of the ICB at Imperial College London.
The ICB is an institute which brings together more than 130 research groups across Imperial College London with 20 industrial partners and an SME business club.
The aim of the ICB CDT, one of the longest standing CDTs in the UK, is to train students in the art of multidisciplinary Chemical Biology research, giving them the exciting opportunity to develop the next generation of molecular tools and technologies for making, measuring, modelling and manipulating molecular interactions in biological systems.
Students on the programme apply these advances to tackle key biological/biomedical problems and clinical/industrial challenges.
Students will be armed with an in-depth understanding of product development pipelines across a variety of sectors, acquired through first-hand experience of multidisciplinary translational research and early stage commercialisation.
This skill set is in great demand from industry and addresses the future needs of employers in the pharmaceutical, biomedical, healthcare, personal care, biotech, agri-science and SME sectors.
MRes
Students will join the first year for a multidisciplinary MRes in Chemical Biology & Bioentrepreneurship, where exciting professional and transferable skills courses are crafted and delivered in partnership with industry, and fused with world class research, hacking and entrepreneurship training.
This includes an 8-month multidisciplinary research project, taught courses, training in Imperial College’s Advanced Hackspace, industry-led innovation workshops and much more.
PhD
The one-year MRes is followed by a 3-year PhD building on the research project from the MRes.
During this phase of the programme students continue to benefit from additional bespoke transferable skills training courses in Science Communication, outreach and responsible research innovation alongside student-tailored career boosting placements.
In addition, through the DISRUPT programme students will have the opportunity to create their own start-ups. Over the years many of our students have filed their own patents and created their own successful spin-out companies, e.g. Fungi-Alert, Fresh-Check, anywhereHPLC.