Postdoctoral studies in exosome-based cancer therapy and liquid biopsy development

Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research?

Our research involves developing novel and innovative drug delivery technologies that can carry therapies to the target tissues safely and efficiently. In this connection, we engineer exosomes with enhanced delivery and targeting capacities and screen our wide array of exosome designs in disease-relevant cellular and animal models. In parallel, exosomes can also be used for diagnostic purposes. Tumor derived exosomes can be found in all body fluids and can act as a fingerprint, carrying genomic and proteomic information of the cancer. Liquid biopsy is an expanding research field with the hope to improve cancer monitoring and improve implementation of personalized cancer therapies. Even though the field has been largely dominated by circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and DNA (ctDNA), exosomes may have the ability to further improve early cancer detection as exosomes are believed to be secreted at an earlier time point of the cancer development. Thus, our research platform offers a unique opportunity for discovering and developing advanced exosome-based therapeutics and diagnostic tools.

Your mission

As a Postdoctoral Research fellow, you will work on the development of bioengineered extracellular vesicles (EVs) as novel cancer therapies and development of improved strategies for enrichment of tumor derived EVs as an improved liquid biopsy platform in cancer.

Most of the research will initially be conducted utilizing cell lines and animal models before the methods are applied to patient material. The work will involve developing stable cell lines for production of EVs engineered to harbor reporter proteins, with or without a therapeutic/targeting domain. The stable cells will be used both for screening of suitable cell source for therapeutic applications of EVs and for labeling of tumor derived EVs used for optimization of isolation techniques from complex media such as plasma. Next, the therapeutically engineered EVs will be loaded with anti-tumoral drugs and assessed in vitro and in vivo. Following successful isolation protocol, the labeled tumor derived EVs (and later patient derived EVs) will be sequenced and undergo proteomic analysis, which will be compared to ctDNA/CTCs.

Your profile

To be eligible for employment as a postdoctor a doctoral degree or a foreign degree deemed to be equivalent to a doctoral degree is required. This eligibility requirement must be fulfilled at the latest at the time of the employment decision. It is considered as an advantage if you have completed your doctoral degree within the last three years, if there are special reasons, your degree may have been completed earlier.

The applicant should have a solid background in molecular and tumor biology or biotechnology. The position requires practical lab experience in the following areas; RNA-sequencing and/or experience with molecular cloning, extensive knowledge regarding cell culture work including generation of stable cell clones for protein expression. Secondly, experience in proteomics and flow cytometric analysis of protein expression are wanted. The ideal candidate would furthermore have experience within the EV or virus field. Clinical experience within the field of oncology, as well as FELASA level animal license and experience from experimental work in rodents are meritorious.

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.

What do we offer?

A creative and inspiring environment with wide-ranging expertise and interests. Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. At Karolinska Institutet, we conduct successful medical research and hold the largest range of medical education in Sweden. At KI, you get to meet researchers working with a wide range of specialisms and methods, giving you ample opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience with the various scientific fields within medicine and health. It is the crossover collaborations, which have pushed KI to where it is today, at the forefront of global research. Several of the people you meet in healthcare are educated at KI. A close relationship with the health care providers is important for creating groundbreaking top quality education and research. Karolinska Institutet is also a state university, which entitles you to several benefits through our collective agreement.

Location: Flemingsberg

Choose to work at KI – Ten reasons why

Application

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

A complete resumé, 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)

Welcome to apply!

The application is to be submitted through the Varbi recruitment system.

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