Development of a Dermatopathology Foundation Model (PhD)

This PhD position is part of the Horizon Europe MSCA Doctoral Network SPACE-MEL, which aims to advance spatial single-cell omics technologies for precision medicine. The successful candidate will develop a dermatopathology-specific foundation model for melanoma diagnosis and risk stratification at The University of Manchester. The project involves building a large, harmonised dataset of digitised H&E and IHC images linked to pathology reports, molecular information, and spatial omics data. The candidate will work on computational pathology, visual foundation models, and multimodal learning for digital pathology applications. The role includes research visits to Erasmus MC and Intelligent Biodata, focusing on data curation, model integration, and clinical application. This position offers a prestigious MSCA Fellowship, interdisciplinary training, and exposure to cutting-edge research in spatial biology.

• Develop a dermatopathology-specific foundation model for melanoma diagnosis and risk stratification using digitised H&E and IHC images.
• Build and harmonise a large dataset linking pathology reports, molecular information, and spatial omics data.
• Train and refine a pathology foundation model adapted to dermatopathology applications.
• Integrate histology-derived representations with textual and omics information for diagnostic triage and molecular status prediction.
• Collaborate with Erasmus MC on curation and harmonisation of digitised melanoma images and clinical-pathology data.
• Work with Intelligent Biodata to integrate model outputs with LLM-based approaches and pathology reports.
• Conduct research visits to partner institutions to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Present research findings at international conferences and workshops.