1 PhD position for Miniaturized Metabolomics Phenotyping of Parkinson’s Disease in Netherlands | Leiden University

In the innovative Analytical Biosciences team headed by Professor Thomas Hankemeier at the LACDR, there is a position for a PhD student to develop miniaturized analytical methods using microfluidic devices and mass spectrometry to obtain metabolic profiles for the study of Parkinson’s disease.

In this project you will work with an inspiring team of other researchers at the LACDR, Mimetas, and collaborators in Luxembourg headed by dr. Ronan Fleming contributing to the experimental design and metabolomics characterization for modelling brain/PD metabolism. You will use established protocols for the comprehensive and quantitative study of the metabolome in in-vitro neurological cell culture samples and improve current protocols by setting up a miniaturized sample preparation workflow. You will miniaturize selected RPLC-MS and HILIC-MS protocols to analyze samples from an innovative microfluidic cell culture of dopaminergic neurons, a so-called neurons-on-a-chip platform. You will explore nanoLC-MS and microLC-MS for this, and you will use high resolution mass spectrometric detection.

Your work will be an important contribution in understanding the biochemistry underlying Parkinson Disease. You will work on developing strategies for developing a treatment of Parkinson Disease, and how drug research should be conducted in a personalized medicine approach. Your research will be part of a multi-disciplinary European Consortium of leading groups in the field of Parkinson disease.

Requirements

• Master's degree in a life science or engineering discipline;
• Strong interest in technology, microfluidic, analytical chemistry; mass spectrometry;
• Interest in drug research and cell biology;
• Proficient in spoken and written English;
• An independent and creative team player with good communicative skills.

Conditions of employment

We offer a full-time, fixed-term post for a period of one year with an extension of three years after positive evaluation of capabilities and compatibility. Ultimately, the appointment must lead to the completion of a PhD thesis. Salary ranges from € 2.125,- gross per month in the first year up to € 2.717,- in year four, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.

Leiden University offers an attractive benefits package with additional holiday (8%) and end-of-year bonuses (8.3 %), training and career development and sabbatical leave. Our individual choices model gives you some freedom to assemble your own set of terms and conditions. Candidates from outside the Netherlands may be eligible for a substantial tax break.

Department

The Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) is a leading institute dedicated to world-class research and education in drug discovery and development. LACDR comprises a diverse and international team of approximately150 researchers and is ideally located at the Leiden Bio Science Park, the largest life science cluster in The Netherlands. In the 2015 QS World University Ranking, the University of Leiden was listed number 9 globally in the area of Pharmacy and Pharmacology.

The Division of Analytical Biosciences at the LACDR has a world-leading reputation in the field of metabolomics, and has a track record in developing novel analytical and microfluidic methods. Recently, an organ-on-a-chip platform has been developed, and has been the basis for the LACDR spin-off company Mimetas. Within the LACDR there is a growing focus on using metabolomics and organ-on-a-chip systems in the areas of drug research, translational disease research, systems pharmacology, computational modelling, medicinal chemistry and toxicology.