Are you an ambitious molecular/medical biologist who wants to improve treatment of blood cancers by studying sugarcoating? Then we are looking for you!

Blood cancers arise due to increased proliferation of blood progenitor cells in the bone marrow. This increased proliferation can be caused by sugarcoating, so called glycosylation, on the surface of cancer cells. Strong preliminary data suggest that glycosylation is essential and a potential therapeutic target for the chronic blood cancer myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) (Jutzi and Marneth et al., 2022). This disease is driven by overactivation of thrombopoietin receptor MPL. Using mass spectrometry, you will generate a full picture of glycosylation on MPL.

Moreover, you will generate glycosylation gene knockouts using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing in induced pluripotent and hematopoietic stem cells, followed by hematopoietic proliferation and differentiation, with the aim of increasing our molecular understanding of MPN pathogenesis and the development of much-needed therapies. You will work in the Laboratory of Hematology and collaborate closely with the Radboud Consortium for Glycoscience and international research groups.

You will plan and perform experiments in the lab, perform (bio-informatic) analyses, write scientific articles, present at work meetings and conferences, and supervise students. You will work closely with technicians, a post-doc, and other PhD candidates in the lab, and you attend weekly lab meetings. At the end of your PhD, you write a PhD thesis, which you will defend in an oral exam/celebration.

You will likely encounter the following techniques during your PhD:

• Culturing blood cells and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), assessing their proliferation and differentiation.
• Cloning DNA plasmids, transformation of bacteria.
• Transfections, transductions, CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing of blood cells and iPSCs
• (q)RT-PCRs.
• Flow cytometry.
• Western blotting.
• Sanger sequencing.
• Mass spectrometry and bio-informatic analyses.
• Possibly mouse work.

You are an ambitious teamplayer and able to plan and carry out highly complex experiments independently. Moreover:

• Msc. Molecular Life Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, or similar.
• Fluency in spoken and written English.
• Open to animal experimentation.
• Experience in hematology, glycoscience, molecular techniques and/or mass spectrometry are preferred.

Fixed-term contract: 4 years.

You will be hired for four years as a PhD candidate, starting in the summer of 2024. At Radboud university medical center, you build on your future. We are committed to providing the best care, education, and research. And we are true to our word, because we help you develop and seize opportunities and give you the room to grow. As an employer, we believe that employees should feel vital and happy at work in all stages of life. We are also committed to creating a healthy and safe working environment. Our employment conditions contribute to that. What we offer:

• Upon commencement of employment, you will start at scale 10A, step 0 (€2,901 based on a full-time appointment). Over a maximum period of 4 years, you will progress to scale 10A, step 3 (€3,677 based on a full-time appointment). You will also receive an 8% vacation allowance, an 8.3% end-of-year bonus, and, depending on the position, an allowance of 47% to 72% for working irregular hours.
• Plenty of opportunities to develop yourself. For example, you can follow various courses via our online learning environment. A lot of attention will also be paid to your wellbeing and vitality. For instance, you can take advantage of:
  
  • a 40% discount on gym membership at the Radboud Sports Center.
  • the Company Support Team and a personal coach if you experience a life-changing event.
  • a financially favorable option to work less through a generation scheme if you are approaching state retirement age.
  • support with achieving a good work-life balance at every stage of your life. This includes advice and training (from ‘Millennial Dilemmas’ to ‘Your Career After 57’), activities at our own mindfulness center, and informal caregiving consultations if you have any questions about combining your work and caregiving tasks at home.
• 168 vacation hours per year based on a 36-hour working week. Want more vacation? You can buy additional vacation hours with your end-of-year bonus.
• 26 weeks of parental leave, of which 9 weeks are paid.
• Extra-favorable leave conditions. For example, our short-term caregiving leave is not 2 but 4 weeks per year and even 12 weeks per year for partner and child.
• Pension accrual with the ABP Pension Fund. Radboud university medical center pays 70% of the pension contribution.
• Discount on the supplementary packages of two collective health insurance policies and on ten other types of insurance, from home insurance to legal assistance.
• A travel allowance via our Employment Conditions Selection Model and a working-from-home allowance of €2 per day.

Radboudumc

The Laboratory of Hematology within the department of Laboratory Medicine Radboudumc, consists of multiple research groups and a large diagnostic laboratory in which both blood cancers as well as bleeding disorders are being studied. You will develop a personal training program together with your group leader, tailered to your needs and wishes. You will work closely with other PhD candidates, Bsc./Msc. students, technicians, and post-docs of the Laboratory of Hematoology. Additionally, clinical hematologists are located on the same floor and join work discussions for clinical input and translation to the clinic.

Since you will study glycosylation, you will also closely collaborate with the Radboud Consortium for Glycoscience, for example for mass spectrometry measurements and analyses. Moreover, you will collaborate with national and international partners in hematology and glycoscience.

Radboudumc
Welcome to Radboud university medical center (Radboudumc), where scientific breakthroughs are born through the curiosity and passion of our collaborating researchers in a vibrant environment. We believe trust and excitement are crucial elements to achieving our goals, and we approach our research as teams and with the utmost rigor to make a significant impact on health and healthcare. Our researchers are driven by their fascination with the biological, psychological, and sociological mechanisms underlying health and healthcare. They collaborate with partners from all over the world to improve health outcomes for all. Radboudumc unites patient care, research, education, and corporate learning, which allows us to approach our mission to shape the health and healthcare of the future in an innovative and person-centered way.

Our ambition is to lead the way in the pursuit of prevention, sustainability, meaningful care. We believe that through our research, we can significantly improve the health and well-being of society. Join us on our mission to make a difference in healthcare. Become a part of our community of gifted researchers, professionals or patient partners who are dedicated to making a real impact on population health and healthcare.

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