Postdoctoral studies in cell and gene therapy (scholarship) - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research?

The Department of Laboratory Medicine consists of seven divisions and is active in many areas of Laboratory Medicine. The department is involved in advanced basic scientific, clinical and epidemiological research. The department is one of the largest departments of education at Karolinska Institutet - 350 people are employed at the department, half of which are PhD-students.

We are seeking a highly motivated person to join the group of Assistant Professor Joel Nordin as a Postdoctoral Researcher to study the development of bioengineered cell therapies for treatment of pancreas cancer (EVs).

Description of the project

The PhD studies will be located to Campus Flemingsberg and the Clinical Research Centre (CRC), where the project will be carried out. The Centre provides the facilities needed for cell- and molecular biology research and the possibility to perform research in vivo.

Our research efforts in Nordin´s lab focus on one of the greatest challenges facing modern therapeutics, delivery. Despite the unprecedented knowledge of diseases and their mechanisms due to advances in biomedical sciences; many promising therapeutic approaches are still clinically unavailable. This is simply because there is no efficient means of delivering these therapeutics to the right organ with the right dose. Such therapeutics include proteins for replacement therapy or antibodies for anti-inflammatory treatment as well as nucleic acids for gene therapy of diseases.

Research group

The Nordin group develops innovative cell therapies for advanced applications. We have developed a promising technology based on a cell therapy in combination with engineered extracellular vesicles (EVs). We engineer cells with enhanced delivery and targeting capacities by utilizing engineered EVs. In this specific project we aim to treat pancreas cancer by utilizing our novel cell therapy approach to deliver anti-pancreas cancer macromolecules in the local cancer environment to be able to increase the effectiveness and decrease any unwanted side-effects. For more information about the Nordin´s research group – visit Research group Joel Nordin.

Duties

Most of the research will be conducted utilizing cell lines and animal models. The first part of the research will involve engineering of immune cells to recognize pancreas cancer tumor cells.
Next will be to combine the cell therapy with engineered EVs to achieve high treatment efficacy. This will be done by advanced cell engineering allowing us to control the secretion of engineered EVs from the immune cells, which will only occur when the engineered cell encounters a specific antigen. Thus, the cell can be engineered to only release therapeutically active EVs in a local microenvironment, such as the cancer stroma.

Entry requirements

Scholarships for postdoctoral qualification can be established for foreign researchers who place their qualifications in Sweden. The purpose of scholarships for postdoctoral qualification is to promote internationalization and contribute to research qualification after a doctorate or equivalent.
A scholarship for carrying out postdoctoral research can be granted for a maximum of two years within a four year period following the receipt of a doctoral degree or equivalent.
To be eligible for a postdoctoral scholarship, the person must have obtained a doctorate or a foreign degree deemed to be equivalent to a doctorate. Applicants who have not completed a doctorate at the end of the application period may also apply, provided that all requirements for a completed degree are met before the (intended) start date of the post doctoral education.

The head of the department determines whether their previous training and scholarly qualifications correspond to a Swedish doctorate or higher.

Other requirements

The ideal candidate is highly motivated, with an outstanding completed PhD thesis (or equivalent) and a strong drive for a future career in research. The candidate should be capable of generating novel ideas, acquire knowledge independently and possess sufficient computational skills to evaluate and develop ongoing projects.
It is preferable that the applicant has a solid background in basic biology and/or drug delivery.
The studies will require practical lab experience in the following areas: foremost experience with cell culture and engineering of cells for therapeutic applications.
Extensive experience from cell culture work is preferred and previous skill regarding culturing and engineering of T- and/or NK-cells is a merit.
The project will in later stages include animal work which requires a FelasaC certificate, hence previous experience with animal studies is preferred but not required.
The ideal candidate would furthermore have experience within the EV- or virus-field and experience with molecular cloning is a merit, but neither are required.

In addition, excellent proficiency in both spoken and written English is important.
We are looking for an energetic and passionate person who fits in, and actively contributes to our team. The position will include mentoring of PhD-students and thus previous mentoring experience would be an advantage.

Location: Flemingsberg

Type of scholarship

The amount is tax free and it is set for twelve months at a time, paid out on a six months basis. In exceptional cases, shorter periods may be acceptable.

Application process

An application must contain the following documents in English or Swedish:

-A complete curriculum vitae, including date of the thesis defence, title of the thesis, previous academic positions, academic title, current position, academic distinctions, and committee work
-A complete list of publications
-A summary of current work (no more than one page)

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