PhD student - mechanisms of myelin repair - NIN Amsterdam

PhD Student – mechanisms of myelin repair

Are you fascinated by the challenge of restoring brain repair in multiple sclerosis (MS)? Do you want to explore why the brain fails to remyelinate—and how we can reverse this process? Are you eager to combine human brain pathology with cutting-edge gene therapy and in vivo techniques? Then this PhD position may be for you.

What you will be doing
Remyelination—the regeneration of myelin sheaths around axons following demyelination—is a crucial repair process in MS and is a major goal for future therapies. Yet in many people with MS, this process fails, and the reasons for this are still poorly understood.

Our recent transcriptomic analysis of post-mortem MS brain tissue (Chen et al., 2024, Brain) uncovered a surprising finding: in addition to a lack of pro-regenerative signals, active inhibition of remyelination appears to occur in MS lesions containing myelin-laden, or foamy, microglia. This PhD project, funded by Stichting MS Research, will investigate these inhibitory mechanisms, with the ultimate goal of facilitating successful myelin repair in the MS brain.

You will identify molecular targets from the unique MS autopsy collection of the Netherlands Brain Bank using bioinformatics and immunohistochemistry analyses, and functionally test their role in ex vivo brain slice cultures and in vivo mouse models of MS (cuprizone, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis). As part of a close collaboration between the Neuroimmunology Research Group (Prof. Inge Huitinga) and the Neuroregeneration Group (Prof. Joost Verhaagen), you will use gene therapy approaches (adenoviral vectors: AAV) to manipulate remyelination-inhibiting pathways in the central nervous system (CNS). This project brings together human pathology, neuroimmunology, gene therapy, and functional animal studies.

You are a highly motivated and curious PhD candidate who is eager to unravel complex disease mechanisms and contribute to the development of new regenerative therapies for MS. You have a Master’s degree in neuroscience, biomedical sciences, or a related field, and experience with or a strong interest in animal research.
The ideal candidate has a background in neuroimmunology and human brain pathology, with experience in immunohistochemistry, molecular, in vivo and cell culture techniques. You also have a collaborative mindset and the ability to work independently, with excellent problem-solving and communication skills in English (written and spoken).

Depending on education and experience the minimum salary is € 2.901,- and the maximum salary is € 3.707,- gross per month for a full-time appointment (PhD scale, cao Nederlandse Universiteiten/KNAW). This is exclusive of 8% vacation allowance, 8.3% year-end bonus, travel allowance, internet allowance, home working allowance and pension accrual with ABP.

The KNAW offers its staff an excellent package of secondary benefits. A package that meets the different needs of employees depending on their stage of life, lifestyle or career ambitions. For example, by working an extra two hours a week, it is possible to increase the number of days off from 29 to 41 days a year (with full-time employment).

For a complete overview of the terms of employment, please refer to the web page: werken bij de KNAW.

Applying for a Certificate of Good Conduct can be part of the employment procedure.

The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience is the country's leading fundamental neuroscience research institute, in the international and progressive city of Amsterdam. It provides a critical mass of scientists (spanning more than 27 nationalities) and neuroscience facilities, in a highly interactive, dynamic, multi-cultural environment, with English as the working language.

The Neuroimmunology Research Group (IMM), led by Prof. Inge Huitinga, investigates the cellular and molecular mechanisms driving multiple sclerosis (MS) pathology using human postmortem tissue and in vitro analyses. The Neuroregeneration Group (NRG), led by Prof. Joost Verhaagen, focuses on developing state-of-the-art AAV gene therapies to apply in functional in vivo studies, with a view to repairing damage in the CNS. You can learn more at www.nin.nl.

For additional enquiries, please contact Dr. Niamh McNamara (n.mcnamara@nin.knaw.nl) or Prof. Inge Huitinga (i.huitinga@nin.knaw.nl).