PhD position, Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany

The Technische Universität Braunschweig in collaboration with Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research and Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences currently initiate the doctoral program "Drug Discovery and Cheminformatics for New Anti-Infectives (iCA)“ which is granted by the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony.  The program aims at studying fundamental principles of drug discovery by combining life sciences and digital sciences. 

 

The iCA consortium is offering 15 Georg-Christoph-Lichtenberg scholarships (duration: 3 years).


The program of the iCA consortium offers an ambitious, structured and interdisciplinary training based on top-level fundamental research. This joint program provides an internationally competitive research environment with state-of-the-art facilities. The participating groups use a variety of different methods, including experimental, digital, and theoretical approaches.


The graduate program starts in the period from February to July 2020. For details and individual project descriptions please refer to the scholarship announcement attached. If you have any questions, please contact pvz-apply@tu-braunschweig.de. 


The program is open for applications now. Applications should include letter of motivation, curriculum vitae, certificates, etc. combined in a single PDF file (max. 15 MB). Please send your application to pvz-apply@tu-braunschweig.de until 31 December, 2019. 




Cyathane as Neutrotrophin-inducing host-specific anti-infectious compounds against Staphylococcus aureus

Host lab: Prof. Dr. Reinhard W. Köster (Zoologisches Institut, TU-Braunschweig)

Infections with Staphylococcus aureus induce the expression of Nerve Growth Factor beta (NGFb) in macrophages, which coordinates the innate immune response by macrophages and neutrophils in an autocrine and paracrine manner via the high affinity receptor Tropomyosin-related Kinase A (TrkA) [1]. Pharmacological NGF-inducing compounds carry the potential to strengthen the innate immune response against infections.

of anti-infectious agents

Our group in collaboration with the research group of Marc Stadler has successfully isolated several novel cyathane-diterpenoid compounds, the structure was solved and their NGF-inducing properties characterized [2,3]. During the PhD project the mechanism of the cyathane-mediated induction of ngf expression should be clarified including bioinformatic and molecular analysis of ngf regulatory genomic sequences followed by quantitative in vitro and cell type specific expression studies. Because S. aureusinfections can also affect the central nervous system, the potential penetrance of these compounds across the blood brain barrier on cell-based models and in vivo should be evaluated. As in vivo model transparent zebrafish larvae will be used for high-resolution time-lapse microscopy approaches.

Applicants with master degrees in biology, pharmacy or related study programs and interest in interdisciplinary doctorate in molecular biology, infection biology, neurobiology and compounds studies are highly welcome.

For any questions, please contact: Prof. Reinhard Köster, Tel.: +49 531 391 3230

Email: r.koester@tu-bs.de


Literature

[1] Hepburn L. et al., Science (2014), 346, 641-646.

[2] Wittstein K. et al., J. Nat. Prod. (2016), 79, 2264-2269.

[3] Rupcic Z. et al., Int. J. Mol. Sci. (2018), 19, E740.doi 10.3390.