The EUCAN-connect project is looking for a talented, curiosity-driven PhD student with strong interest in interdisciplinary research. The EUCAN-connect is a large EU funded international project focused on investigation of the effect of host and environmental factors that influence health outcomes in babies. The current PhD project is aimed on understanding of the role of social-economics factors in families in relation to gut microbiome, and to babies health. The project will be performed in the birth cohort Lifelines-NEXT – a collection of 1500 parent-baby trios, from whom extensive environmental and lifestyle have been collected, and multiple omics data (including analysis of gut microbiome at multiple time points) will be generated. The PhD student will perform the analysis of questionnaires related to social and economic status (such as work, family, and lifestyle related factors), and will link them to developmental and health outcomes in babies until age 1. Since early changes in the gut microbiome are known to influence health later in life, the student will also work on the analysis of social and economic factors in relation to gut microbiome composition and functionality. The results of this project will later be connected with similar studies performed in other baby cohorts included in European and Canadian EUCAN-connect consortium.
This project is a collaboration project between the department of Genetics (Prof. Alexandra Zhernakova) and the department of Health Sciences (Prof. Menno Reijneveld, Dr. Marlou de Kroon)

- M.Sc. degree in biology, medical biology, bioinformatics or a comparable discipline. The candidate with experiences in systems biology and bioinformatics is preferable
- Experience with advanced statistics and epidemiology, biology or biochemistry
- Good organizational and communication skills, being a team-player
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
- Fluency in English

The UMCG has a preventive Hepatitis B policy. The UMCG can provide you with the vaccination, should it be required for your position.

In case of specific professions a ‘Certificate of Good Behaviour’ is required.

We offer a PhDs position for a period of 4 years. The appointments will be at the Department of Health Sciences, Community and Occupational Medicine and the department of Genetics of the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), respectively.

Your salary is € 2.357,- gross per month in the first year up to € 3.020,- gross per month in the last year (scale PhD) for a full time position (36 hours). In addition, the UMCG will offer you 8% holiday pay and 8.3% end-of-year bonus. The terms of employment comply with the Collective Labour Agreement for Medical Centers (CAO-UMC).

For additional information please contact:
Prof. Alexandra Zhernakova (sasha.zhernakova@gmail.com), Prof. Menno Reijneveld (s.a.reijneveld@umcg.nl) and Dr. Marlou de Kroon (m.l.a.de.kroon@umcg.nl)
(please do not use e-mail adresses for applications)