We are offering a position at the Laboratory for Experimental Virology within the Virus Discovery group. The project will focus on orphan viruses, an extremely diverse group of viruses that infect a host, yet are not known to be associated with disease. A swarm of these orphan viruses is found within the Anelloviridae family. The long co-existence of humans and anelloviruses suggests that these viruses are beneficial to their host. Whether these viruses are indeed part of a healthy virome, and whether disturbances of the healthy virome leads to disease will be the subject of the PhD project. The PhD candidate will investigate orphan viruses during human life, using next generation sequencing (Ion Torrent/Illumina) and the VIDISCA library generation technique, a method to study diverse virus families. Further investigation of virus-host interactions will be done via virus culture, using molecular and biological cloned anelloviruses.

We are looking for candidates that are highly motivated, have good communication skills, and hold an MSc degree in Biology, Medical Biology, Life science or a related field. Candidates who have not yet completed their MSc program (but will soon) are also invited to respond. Proficiency in English writing is an advantage.

We offer a challenging research project to lead to a dissertation with excellent facilities for research, and training in state of the art scientific skills. The PhD candidate will be appointed in a full-time position (36 hours/week) for a period of four years and should have completed her/his PhD thesis at the end of that period. Gross monthly salary for PhD candidates range from € 2.266,- gross per month in the first year up to € 2.903,- per month in the fourth year (in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities). In addition to this, we offer a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross yearly salary and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%. Appointment takes place at AMC Medical Research BV.

AMC Medical Research

The AMC is more than just a hospital. It is a world in which patient care, research and education are integrated, and in which people are always central. It is an academic world full of possibilities for talented individuals that are looking for a place where they can excel. Thinking big, daring to dream, cooperating internationally. And never letting yourself be put off by ‘It’s not possible’ or ’It won’t work anyway’. That is the AMC mentality.

http://www.amc.nl/

The Academic Medical Center (AMC) is one of the foremost research institutions in the Netherlands, as well as one of the largest hospitals. It is a hospital in which patient care, research and education are integrated. It is full of possibilities for talented individuals that are looking for a place where they can excel. At the Laboratory of Experimental Virology research on human immunodeficiency viruses, Influenzaviruses, hepatitis viruses, and newly identified viruses is performed. The Laboratory of Experimental Virology consists of >60 researchers. The laboratory covers several BSL-1, two BSL-2 and one BSL-3 facility, separated PCR clean and PCR dirty (biochemistry) areas. The laboratory teams up with the sequencing facility of the AMC that owns two Ion Torrent platforms and a MiSeq Illumina-system for next generation sequencing. The PhD candidate will join the Virus Discovery group, consisting of three PhD students, two technicians, and one PI (Lia van der Hoek). The virus discovery group focuses on identification of new viruses for those diseases of which it is suspected that an unknown or unexpected virus is involved.