We are looking for a highly motivated and hardworking research technician who will support and extend the research of our group in the field of erythropoiesis.

Research
Patients with chronic anemic diseases importantly depend on chronic transfusion regimes. Treatment of these patients with chronic blood transfusion however expose these patient to transfusion-related risks like allo-immunization, iron-overload and cardiac arrest. A major goal within transfusion research is therefore to reduce the intensity of chronic transfusion support, in order to decrease transfusion-related complications and improve quality of life.
Stimulation of erythropoiesis with erythroid stimulating agents (ESA’s) mostly results in a partial temporal response, frequently leading to treatment resistance. Development of novel therapies to increase erythropoiesis in these patients is hampered by poor understanding of the homeostatic erythroid response in bone marrow (BM) to anemia, known as stress erythropoiesis. The in vivo stress erythropoiesis is mainly studied in mice, where it occurs in a completely different organ and niche compared to human (spleen vs BM, respectively). Mouse models, therefore, do not reflect the molecular events occurring in humans (Zhang, Exp Hematol 78, 21). Thus, there is an urgent need to improve understanding of BM stress erythropoiesis in order to develop novel opportunities to treat anemia.
Our lab recently developed innovative techniques to study stress erythropoiesis, which will be used by the PhD students in our group to uncover the signaling mechanisms that underlie the control on stress erythropoiesis. We are currently looking for a technician to perform and extend this research in close collaboration with the PhD-students. The findings of this project may ultimately lead to the identification of molecular mechanisms which can be targeted to stimulate erythropoiesis, in order to decrease transfusion dependency of patients with chronic anemia.

Objectives
The main goal is to extend the development of new techniques in our group to define the underlying molecular signals which control cell behaviour of erythroid progenitor cells during proliferation and differentiation.

Requirements
We are looking for a research technician with the following characteristics:

• A HLO degree or equivalent in biomedical sciences;
• Experience with research in the field of haematopoiesis;
• Creative thinking and highly motivated;
• Excitement to start in a new and young research group at Sanquin;
• Experience with cell cultures;
• Experience with molecular techniques to define protein expression such as flow cytometry and western-blot.

Fixed-term contract: 1 year.

We offer

• Temporary position for the duration of 1 year. 
• Salary and conditions are conform CAO Sanquin;
• a full time contract of 36 hours per week;
• 8,33% end-of-year bonus and 8,33% holiday allowance;
• partial reimbursement of travel expenses;
• pension plan with Pensioenfonds Zorg & Welzijn (PFZW);
• collective discounts on various insurances;
• at fulltime employment 201 hours of leave per annum.

Sanquin

Sanquin is responsible for safe and efficient blood supply in the Netherlands on a not-for-profit basis. Sanquin also develops and produces pharmaceutical products, conducts high-quality scientific research, and develops and performs a multitude of diagnostic services.