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Find a PhD Supervisor

Dr Ian Overton

School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences
Dr Ian Overton

Dr Ian Overton

School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences

My group’s research connects clinical outcomes with biomedical mechanism, pioneering data-intensive approaches to bridge genotype and phenotype for systems and precision medicine. Core activities apply network biology, statistics and machine learning, including polyomics data integration – in order to illuminate molecular control of cell plasticity in health and disease. Indeed, a substantial portion of gene function remains uncharted, especially in mammalian systems, and we fill this knowledge gap by application of sophisticated computational approaches to carefully selected datasets.

Contact info

  • askmhls@qub.ac.uk
  • +44 (0)28 9097 2802

Research Interests

Open to PhD applications in the field of

  • Systems medicine
  • Computational biology
  • Bioinformatics
  • Complexity science
  • Functional genomics
  • Systems modelling
  • Health data research
  • Cancer research
  • Precision oncology

Make a PhD enquiry


Current Research Opportunities

  • Data-intensive discovery of more effective therapies for Glioblastoma
  • Data-intensive discovery of more effective therapies for Glioblastoma

Public outreach & key achievements

Awards 

Students in Dr Overton's group have won prestigious awards including;

  • The only FEBS fellowship (Europe) to attend CaSyM Systems Medicine summer school (2015)
  • The Claire Jones prize for the best-performing female student in Informatics (2016)
  • Best poster prize at National Barrett’s Symposium (2013)

Selected contributions to policy-making

  • As chair of the Open Data and REF2021 working groups at the RSE Young Academy of Scotland I have led the writing of policy position statements, advice papers and consultation responses; submitted to the European Commission (2016, 2014) and at UK National Level (2011, 2013, 2017). This work has been mentioned directly in relevant policy documents.
  • Invited interviewee, ESRC funded study ‘Open Science and Innovation in Contemporary Synthetic and Systems Biology’; speaker at associated workshop (Exeter), informing RCUK policy (2013).
  • Organised debates with key stakeholders in Open Data (2014) and Open Access (2015).

Selected public engagement activities

  • My group and I have participated in numerous institutional open days, science festivals and other public engagement events. For example I ran stall at the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology open day, with an interactive activity called ‘Computing Cures’ that I co-designed. ‘Computing Cures’ communicates the importance of data science and the processes involved in data analysis for cancer research.
  • I have been an active STEM ambassador since 2008
  • Research featured in international, national & local press; print, (e.g. Daily Express, Metro) and online (e.g., Daily Telegraph).


Research students

PhD Title Systems Medicine Approaches to Cancer Drug Resistance and Response, Towards New Clinical Tools
Country UK
Years of study 2018-2021
   
PhD Title Machine Learning For Functional Reconstruction and Analysis of Biochemical Interactions Controlling Colorectal Cancer Phenotypes
Country Nigeria
Years of study 2019-2022
   
Phd Title Machine Learning for Discovery of Patient Journey-Wide Phenotypes and Colorectal Cancer Stratification
Country UK
Years of study 2019-2023

 


Alumni: Where are they now

PhD Title Network Biology and Machine Learning Approaches to Metastasis and Treatment Response
Country UK
Years of Study  2010-2014
Current position  Assistant Professor in Vanderbilt University (USA)

 


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School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences

Whitla Medical Building,
97 Lisburn Road,
Belfast, BT9 7BL

Phone: +44 (0)2890 972215

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