Defining immune fitness in cancer: how cancer treatment and comorbidity shape systemic immunity
Closing date: 23/11/2026
Clinical Research Training Fellowship: Defining immune fitness in cancer: how cancer treatment and comorbidity shape systemic immunity
Lead Supervisors: Dr Jon Lim
Co-Supervisors: Professor Samra Turajlic, Professor Mark Travis, Professor Omer Aziz, Professor Magnus Rattray, Dr Lizzie Appelton
Applications Deadline: 12:00pm Monday 23rd November 2026
Interviews: Friday 5th February 2027 (in Manchester)
Start date: September 2027
Project Keywords: Immune fitness, therapy
Research Opportunity: Clinical Research Training Fellowship leading to the award of PhD
Project Outline
Cancer treatment is increasingly personalised according to tumour biology, yet the functional state of the host immune system is rarely measured. Patients enter the cancer pathway with different ages, comorbidities and immune histories, while surgery, radiotherapy and systemic therapies can each perturb immunity. These interventions are frequently combined or sequenced without systematic knowledge of their cumulative effects on immune competence.
This PhD will define “immune fitness”: the capacity of the immune system to maintain effective, diverse and appropriately regulated responses and to recover following perturbation. Using serial blood samples and detailed clinical annotation from CAPTURE, a pan-cancer longitudinal cohort, the student will study immune fitness before, during and after cancer treatment.
Three complementary blood-based readouts will be integrated. Antibody reactivity to common viruses will assess preservation of established immune memory. Reactivity to human endogenous retroviral antigens, particularly HERVK(HML2) envelope, will assess recognition of endogenous antigens associated with cancer and inflammation. Peripheral blood transcriptional signatures will quantify type I and type II interferon signalling, distinguishing transient immune activation from persistent inflammatory states.
The project will determine: (1) how immune fitness varies at cancer diagnosis; (2) how surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy alter immune fitness over time, including the effects of treatment sequences; and (3) whether immune-fitness states and trajectories associate with response, toxicity and recovery. UK Biobank analyses of incident cancer will examine how age and comorbidity shape the pre-cancer host immune substrate. Key findings will be independently tested in MANIFEST, a national tumour-type-agnostic immunotherapy multiomic platform.
The project will establish a framework for measuring immune resilience during cancer care, with the long-term aim of informing safer treatment selection and sequencing and identifying patients who may benefit from strategies to preserve or restore immune function.
Applications for this project are now open. Please complete your application on The University of Manchester website.
About Dr Jon Lim (project Lead Supervisor)
Dr Jonathan Lim is a Clinical Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Medical Oncologist in Advanced Immunotherapy and Cell Therapy for solid cancers at The University of Manchester and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust. He is passionate about translational research and in advancing novel advanced therapies, especially in the settings of early-phase clinical trials and first-in-human studies.
His translational research programme focuses on the tumour microenvironment, immune biomarkers, and ex vivo modelling to accelerate development of novel therapies. He completed his PhD on dendritic cell biology in cancer at The Francis Crick Institute and Imperial College London, earning the ACP McElwain Prize for Translational Research and AACR‑Pezcoller Scholar‑in‑Training Award. He subsequently undertook a Crick Postdoctoral Clinical Fellowship in London, and ICF‑ESMO Visiting Fellowship in cell therapy at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam.
Dr Lim leads the Manchester-based RISE consortium and is deputy lead of the UK-wide MANIFEST programme, both focused on immunotherapy biomarker research; and serves as Lead Coordinator of the ESMO Translational Research Faculty.
Key information
Before submitting an application, please ensure you have read the information below about the funding arrangements and eligibility for our Clinical Research Training Fellowships.
We also encourage you to get in contact with the lead supervisor to discuss the project and any particulars.
Further information is available on the Clinical Research Training Fellowships webpage.
The clinical fellowships are usually tenable for three years, although in certain circumstances they may be four years duration. The Fellowship covers:
- running expenses,
- an appropriate salary in line with the applicant’s current NHS salary and grade
- full coverage of University PhD fees at the UK/home fee rate.
International Candidates
The University of Manchester aims to support the most outstanding applicants from outside the UK.
We are able to offer a limited number of bursaries to high-performing EU and international candidates, covering PhD fees only. Bursaries do not include financial support for visa/health surcharges.
We assess each EU and international candidate’s suitability for a bursary at the application and interview stages.
You must be a post-registration clinician, and ideally have a specialist post in a related subject, to apply for our Clinical Research Training Fellowships.
Applicants must hold an MBChB degree or an equivalent medical qualification. You should also hold, or be about to obtain, a minimum upper second class (or equivalent) undergraduate degree in a relevant subject. A related master’s degree would be an advantage.
It is generally expected that CRTFs will return to a training programme in the UK upon completion of their research degree.
International applicants (including EU nationals) must ensure they meet the academic eligibility criteria (including English Language) before contacting potential supervisors to express an interest in their project. Eligibility information can be found on the University’s Country Specific information page.
Applications for this programme are now open. Please submit your application on The University of Manchester application portal.
Key dates
- Applications open: Monday 5th October 2026
- Application deadline (all projects): 12:00pm Monday 23rd November 2026
- Clinical Interviews: Friday 5th of February 2027 (in Manchester)
- Start date: September 2027 with flexible starts for clinicians
Useful Links
Submit your application
Interested in applying for this opportunity? Submit your application on The University of Manchester application portal.
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