PhD candidate: Macrophage Transdifferentiation in Atherosclerosis

12 Mar 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

Amsterdam UMC

Research Field

Medical sciences

Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Country

Netherlands

Application Deadline

20 Mar 2024 – 22:59 (UTC)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Not Applicable

Hours Per Week

36.0

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

Macrophages are key immune regulators in atherosclerosis. Their dysregulation leads to disease progression and associated clinical complications. While cell death and necrotic core formation associate with plaque instability and poor clinical outcome, fibrous-cap formation and thickening is associated with increased plaque stability in atherosclerosis. Vascular smooth muscle cells are the main producers of collagen, elastin and proteoglycans that contribute to fibrous-cap formation. We have evidence that also macrophages contribute to this process and in this 4-year fully funded project you will study this.

The candidate will study macrophage transdifferentiation in atherosclerosis, define the molecular pathways that control this process and study how this contributes to local matrix deposition. This fundamental research project will involve cell culture experiments with confocal microscopy and in vivo mouse models for atherosclerosis.

As a PhD candidate your main tasks and responsibilities are:

• Study the direct and indirect effects of macrophage transdifferentiation on matrix deposition by confocal microscopy;
• Study macrophage transdifferentiation in atherosclerosis in myeloid lineage tracing mouse models;
• Validate and functionally test identified regulators by knockdown/knockout strategies on matrix deposition;
• Next to cell culture, confocal microscopy and flow cytometry you will use state-of-the-art approaches such as single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis.

Requirements
Specific Requirements

• You have a master’s degree in a field related to biomedical sciences, (medical) biology, biochemistry or bioinformatics;
• You have experience in immunology, molecular biology, cellular biology or cardiovascular disease;
• You are willing to learn how to perform transcriptomic analysis and bioinformatics;
• You have excellent communication skills in English, both written and oral and you are an enthusiastic team player with positive social skills;
• Experience with confocal microscopy or flow cytometry is a plus and experience with animal experiments (Art. 9 certified) or bioinformatics (computing in R) is a plus.

Additional Information
Benefits

• A flying start to your research career.
• Working on large-scale and own research, with motivated colleagues from all over the world.
• A contract for one year, to be extended with three years, after a successful evaluation in the first year.
• Salary scale OIO : € 2.901 tot € 3.677 gross, based on 36 hours/week. The monthly wage will increase yearly to the maximum wage in the fourth year.
• In addition to a good basic salary, you will also receive an 8.3% year-end bonus and an 8% holiday allowance.
• Pension accrual at BeFrank, a modern, understandable and fairly priced pension.
• Excellent accessibility by public transport and reimbursement of a large part of your travel costs. In addition, we have sufficient parking spaces at the AMC location and a good bicycle scheme.

Additional comments

Interviews will be scheduled in March, we ask that you take this into consideration in advance.

If you have any questions about this position, please feel free to contact Annette Neele, assistant professor, via [email protected] .

For more information about the application procedure, please contact Chey Edwards, Recruitment Advisor, via [email protected] or via +31 6 214 87 245.

A reference check, screening and hiring test may be part of the procedure. Read here whether that applies to you. If you join us, we ask you for a VOG (Certificate of Good Conduct).

Internal candidates will be given priority over external candidates in case of equal suitability.

Acquisition in response to this vacancy is not appreciated.

Website for additional job details

https://www.academictransfer.com/338631/

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Amsterdam UMC

Country

Netherlands

City

Amsterdam

Postal Code

1105AZ

Street

Meibergdreef 9

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://www.academictransfer.com/en/338631/phd-candidate-macrophage-transdiffer…

Contact

City

Amsterdam Zuidoost

Website

https://www.amsterdamumc.org/

Street

Meibergdreef 9

Postal Code

1105 AZ

STATUS: EXPIRED