PhD candidate neuroplasticity in depression, physician-researcher (MD) NIN Amsterdam

As a PhD candidate/student, you will work at both the Amsterdam UMC and the NIN, and you will act as a bridge between fundamental and clinical science. You work in a multidisciplinary and translational way: you translate findings from the lab to the patient, from molecule to behaviour and vice versa. In practice, this means that you will be involved in clinical trials with Positron Emission Tomography scans of patients with depression undergoing treatment, as well as perform immunohistochemical stains in the lab to count synapses in post-mortem brain tissue.

What you will be contributing?

You will delve into literature on neuroplasticity in depression.
You and a team will set up a CSF biobank aimed at collecting CSF from depressed patients.
At the CSF of the biobank and the Netherlands Brain Bank for Psychiatry (NHB-psy), you perform O-link proteomics.
You will conduct a study of synapse density in depressed patients undergoing brain stimulation using a new SV2a PET scan.
You will conduct a study of synapse density in post-mortem tissue of depressed patients, using immuno-histochemistry (IHC)/fluorescence and Western blots with synaptic and microglia markers.
You will learn to use high and super-resolution microscopy (STED, confocal).
You will help set up a 'psychiatric autopsy protocol', to improve the donor phenotyping of psychiatric brain donors of NHB-Psy.

What do you bring with you?

We are looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate who brings the following:

A medical doctor (MD) degree, with an affinity for neuroscience;
Demonstrated interest in medical research, in particular neuroscience;
You have excellent writing and communication skills;
You are able to work both independently and in a team;
You are fluent in Dutch and English.

What we are offering:

A flying start to your career in neuroscientific research, working with top scientists and clinicians from renowned institutes.
Access to state-of-the-art facilities and equipment.
Opportunities to attend conferences and training.
Good terms of employment (see below). You will be employed by NIN, but also appointed at the Amsterdam UMC, Psychiatry department. A contract for the duration of 12 months, with the intention to extend to a total of 4 years.

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 and mood disorders, using human postmortem tissue and in vitro analyses. Dr. Karel Scheepstra is psychiatrist and specialized in difficult-to-treat depression and its neurobiology. You will also become part of the MoodLabMeets research team of the Department of Psychiatry. You can learn more at www.nin.nl and www.moodlabmeets.com. There are long-term collaborations with the Department of Nuclear Medicine and the NHB-Psy; they are directly involved in the project.

For additional enquiries, please contact Dr. Karel Scheepstra (k.w.scheepstra@amsterdamumc.nl) or Prof. Inge Huitinga (i.huitinga@nin.knaw.nl).