Project description

The Interreg Nederland-Vlaanderen project “Memories” (www.herinneringen.eu) aims to utilise omic profiles in an agnostic search for new and integrated biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease.

In this position you will work on mechanistic understanding by applying differential genomics analysis on data obtained from neuronal cell models derived from pluripotent stem cells generated from healthy individuals, and patients in various stages of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, following in-vitro exposure to neurotoxins. The focus will be on expression profiling for genes and microRNAs using sequencing technologies. This information will then be validated against data to be obtained from biological samples from patients presenting similar disease phenotypes. Advancing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the earliest stages of dementia development will facilitate the creation of novel tools for early diagnosis.

In addition to the discovery of novel biomarkers, you will explore the mechanistic information of value in establishing cause-effect relationships, by functional analyses of pathways, transcription factors and mRNA-microRNA interactions. From this project, new opportunities for development of drugs addressing early events in disease progression are expected to emerge as well, eventually combined with better methods for (pre-)clinical diagnosis and clinical efficacy assessment of novel drugs.                    

As a post-doctoral researcher you will publish scientific journal articles on your work and will actively seek new funding opportunities through grant applications. You will present your work at local, national and international conferences. You will provide guidance to BSc, MSc and/or PhD students and/or technicians, and will interact with other researchers.

What we seek

• A candidate with the following required and preferred qualifications:
• Required:
• PhD in Bioinformatics, Systems Biology, Bio-Medical Sciences or equivalent;
• Interest in neurotoxicology
• A project and result-oriented way of working with a planned approach;
• Ability to work in a multidisciplinary team of molecular biologists, computer scientists, physicists, and other medical and non-medical personnel;
• Experienced in relevant bioinformatics approaches;
• Fluency in English.

Preferred:

• Experience with working in the scientific or bio-medical research field;
• Experience with gene and microRNA sequencing data analysis;
• Experience with complex statistics;
• Ability to work with R and MySQL or equivalent languages or databases;

The terms of employment of Maastricht University are set out in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO). Furthermore, local UM provisions also apply. For more information look at the website http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl > Support > UM employees.

What we offer

You will receive a fixed-term contract (38 hours/week) for a period of 1 year with a possible extension till December 31, 2020. Your salary will be according to the salary scale 10, with a maximum of 4.274 euro gross per month on a fulltime basis depending on previous experience. The collective agreement has a comprehensive package of benefits.

Maastricht University

Maastricht University is renowned for its unique, innovative, problem-based learning system, which is characterized by a small-scale and student-oriented approach. Research at UM is characterized by a multidisciplinary and thematic approach, and is concentrated in research institutes and schools. Maastricht University has around 18,000 students and 4,300 employees. Reflecting the university's strong international profile, a fair amount of both students and staff are from abroad. The university hosts 6 faculties: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Law, School of Business and Economics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience.

Toxicogenomics

At the Department of Toxicogenomics (TGX), a multidisciplinary team of biologists, chemists, toxicologists and bioinformaticians is working in close collaboration to establish the biological impact of exposures to potentially toxic compounds. The rapid development of the new, so called omics-technologies, has enabled us to establish responses at different molecular levels with higher sensitivity than most classical effect markers, and providing information on the involved molecular mechanisms of action. As such, toxicogenomics research combines toxicology with genomics approaches in order to obtain more accurate understanding of toxicological processes. The application of these innovative omics-technologies in in vitro toxicology and human health risk analysis can be regarded as the central research paradigm of our department.