We offer you an exciting PhD research position on COVID-19 vaccination in vulnerable patients, embedded within top research groups. Will you join us!

Kidney patients are highly vulnerable to COVID-19 and for this patient group the availability of effective and safe vaccines is essential. Clinical trials performed by vaccine companies mostly excluded patients with severe kidney failure or kidney transplant patients. The Radboudumc participates in the RECOVAC study, a ZonMw-funded national multi-center clinical trial to investigate the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with renal failure, patients on dialysis or kidney transplant patients.
Although we encourage you to actively participate in shaping your own research, the key tasks and responsibilities for this project are:

• Examine the development and persistence of mucosal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in different patient groups and healthy controls.
• Investigate SARS-CoV-2 antigen-specific T-cell differentiation and functional dynamics through single-cell RNA sequencing and single-cell fate mapping, in close collaboration with the Radboud Center for Molecular and Biomolecular Informatics (CMBI).
• Correlate immunological responses with various clinical parameters.
• Prepare research reports in the form of publications, presentations and progress reports.
• Communicate with laboratory researchers and medical doctors on a weekly basis.

We are looking for a graduated academic (MSc degree in (Medical) Biology, Molecular Life Sciences, Technical Medicine, Chemistry or related discipline). Furthermore:

• Experience with immunological techniques such as flowcytometry.
• Affinity with bioinformatics and experience with programming, e.g. in R, preferred.Preferably with experience in analysing (sc)RNA-seq data.
• Ability and enthusiasm to learn new methods and skills.
• Pro-active attitude and excellent communication skills.
• Ability to work as part of a team, but also to perform research independently.
• Ability to organise and prioritise own work, work in a project-based manner.
• Ability to cope with stress and show perseverance.
• Good verbal and written communication skills.

Fixed-term contract: 3 years.

Working at Radboud university medical center means that you are ahead of the curve and working together on the healthcare of the future. But there is more. Our secondary terms of employment are impressive. These are fully tailored to you thanks to our Employment Conditions Selection Model. At Radboud university medical center, you will be given trust, and you will take the responsibility to handle everything together. We provide annual courses, both professional and personal.

• In addition to your monthly salary and an annual vacation allowance of 8%, you will receive an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%.
• If you work irregular hours, you will receive an allowance.
• As a full-time employee (36 hours per week), you are entitled to approximately 168 vacation hours (over 23 days) per year.
• Radboud university medical center pays 70% of the pension premium. You pay the rest of the premium with your gross salary.
• You get a discount on health insurance as well: you can take advantage of two group health insurance plans. UMC Zorgverzekering and CZ collectief.

In addition to our terms of employment, we also offer employees various other attractive facilities, such as childcare and sports facilities. Want to learn more? Take a look at the Cao UMC.

Radboudumc

Department of Nephrology 'A significant impact on renal health care' aims to investigate and treat kidney diseases and kidney-replacement therapy (dialysis and transplantation), by combining patient care, scientific research and education. Kidney transplantation and immunological research are key areas.

Laboratory of Medical Immunology
The Laboratory of Medical Immunology (LMI) is embedded within the Department Laboratory. Within LMI, diagnostics, scientific research and education are combined. The main research topic is to improve diagnostics and develop new biomarkers for patients with immune related diseases and to improve the efficacy of immunotherapy and vaccination. Our research uses state of the art immune profiling techniques such as single-cell RNA sequencing and bioinformatic analyses and machine-learning methods to map variation in the human immune system and to improve vaccination efficacy. This involves close collaboration with clinical and immunological partners.

Research Institutes
At the moment there are more than 1,300 PhD candidates at our medical hospital. This number includes PhD candidates on our pay roll as well as external candidates (those employed somewhere else but researching on our premises).

• Radboud Institute for Health Sciences: ± 700
• Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences: ± 400
• Donders Center for Medical Neurosciences: ± 200

Read what it is like to do a PhD at the Radboud University Medical Center.

Radboudumc
Radboud university medical center is a university medical center for patient care, scientific research, and education in Nijmegen. Radboud university medical center strives to be at the forefront of shaping the healthcare of the future. We do this in a person-centered and innovative way, and in close collaboration with our network. We want to have a significant impact on healthcare. We want to improve with each passing day, continuously working towards better healthcare, research, and education. And gaining a better understanding of how diseases arise and how we can prevent, treat, and cure them, day in and day out. This way, every patient always receives the best healthcare, now and in the future. Because that is why we do what we do.

Read more about our strategy and what working at Radboud university medical center means. Our colleagues would be happy to tell you about it. #weareradboudumc