Two PhD Positions - Leiden University
Job Opportunities at Leiden University in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network “ImageInLife”
ImageInLife is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN funded by the European Commission Horizon2020 programme and focused on the training of European experts in multilevel bio-imaging, analysis and modelling of vertebrate development and disease. The network consists of participants from academia and the private sector who have joined forces to educate the next generation of imagers of the physiology and pathology of living organisms. The project will run for 4 years, starting 1 January 2017.
In the context of the ImageInLife network, the Institute of Biology, Leiden University, has vacancies for 2 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs, PhD students) on the projects detailed below. The ESRs will be offered an interdisciplinary education programme that includes a PhD trajectory with training-through-research in individual projects, secondments at research groups of other network partners, and a variety of local and network-wide courses and workshops.
Project 1: Correlative light and electron microscopy in the mycobacteria-infected zebrafish embryo
The ESR will work in the group of Prof. Annemarie Meijer with Dr. Marcel Schaaf as co-supervisor. The ESR will use the well-established zebrafish tuberculosis disease model to study how mycobacteria hide in subcellular compartments of immune cells and induce these infected leukocytes to form organised cellular structures, called granulomas, which are the hallmark structures of mycobacterial infections and key to understand the pathogenesis of tuberculosis. The ESR will use fluorescent reporter zebrafish lines and the advanced confocal microscopy setups at the Cell Observatory of Leiden University to study immune defence responses (such as cytokine/chemokine activation and autophagy) and subcellular mycobacterial localisation during granuloma formation. These host-pathogen interaction processes will be visualized down to the ultrastructural level by correlating the confocal microscopy images with electron microscopy analysis, in particular block face scanning electron microscopy.
Project 2: Single-molecule microscopy in zebrafish embryos
The ESR will work in the group of Dr. Marcel Schaaf with Prof. Annemarie Meijer as co-supervisor and in close collaboration with the Leiden Institute of Physics (Dr. John van Noort). We recently performed single-molecule microscopy in zebrafish embryos to study the mobility of individual fluorescent proteins in the membrane of the outer cell layer of the epidermis. The ESR will develop new strategies for protein tagging with fluorescent dyes and extend the possibilities of single-molecule microscopy to non-membrane proteins and proteins in sub-epithelial cell layers. TIRF, light sheet, and 2-photon microscopy setups will be used. The developed technology will be applied to image single molecules (chemokines and receptors, autophagy markers) in embryos and their dynamics in leukocytes during mycobacterial infection of zebrafish embryos.
Applicants should hold a degree in biology, biophysics, or biomedical sciences and must comply with the eligibility criteria and transnational mobility rules for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks:
· Early-stage researchers (ESRs) will be appointed for 3 years as Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellows with the possibility of 1 year extension since the normal duration of a PhD in the Netherlands is 4 years. They will register for a PhD at the graduate school of the Leiden University Science Faculty. At the time of recruitment, they shall be in the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of their research careers and have not been awarded a doctoral degree.
· Full-Time Equivalent Research Experience is measured from the date when the researcher obtained the degree entitling him/her to embark on a doctorate (either in the country in which the degree was obtained or in the country in which the researcher is recruited or seconded), even if a doctorate was never started or envisaged.
· Trans-national mobility (i.e. move from one country to another) is an essential requirement of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks. Researchers can be of any nationality. At the time of recruitment by the host organisation, researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc) in the country of their host organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the reference date. Compulsory national service and/or short stays such as holidays are not taken into account. Applicants must also be prepared to be seconded for short periods (from several weeks up to maximally 30% of the recruitment period) to other network partners to carry out part of their research work.
The ESRs will be employed at the host institute by a contract with full social security coverage. They will receive a gross salary augmented by a mobility allowance in line with the EC rules for Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant holders. Candidates will be selected based on their educational background, research experience, fluency in spoken and written English, and motivation to take part in and contribute to the research and training programme of the ImageInLife consortium. Applications - in English - should include a cover letter, curriculum vitae, certificates of examination results, and two reference letters, which are all to be submitted through an on-line application system at https://www.imageinlife-application.eu. ImageInLife strives to recruit between 40-60% female researchers. For more information contact Prof. Annemarie Meijer (project 1) at a.h.meijer@biology.leidenuniv.nl or Dr. Marcel Schaaf (project 2) at m.j.m.schaaf@biology.leidenuniv.nl. The application deadline is 6 November 2016.