Postdoctoral position – In situ engineering of extracellular vesicles

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.

Division

The Department of Laboratory of Medicine, located in Huddinge Campus, is one of the Karolinska Institutet’s largest departments with seven research divisions including Biomolecular and Cellular Medicine (BCM), where the project will be carried out. 350 people are employed at the department, half of which are PhD-students. The Centre provides the facilities needed for cell- and molecular biology research and the possibility to perform research in vivo.

Our research efforts in EL Andaloussi´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 including muscular dystrophies and neurodegenerative disorders. We develop innovative drug delivery technologies that are able to carry protein and/or gene therapies to the target tissues safely and efficiently.

We have developed a promising technology based on reprogramming exosomes, which are vesicles that are naturally used by cells to communicate, to carry therapeutic proteins and nucleic acids. We engineer exosomes with enhanced delivery and targeting capacities and screen our wide array of exosome designs in disease-relevant cellular and animal models. Additionally, our lab develops methods for gene therapy based on modified cell-penetrating peptides that are efficient carriers of nucleic acids and proteins across biological barriers. We test our different technologies in models of inflammatory diseases, tumors as well as neurodegenerative and neuromuscular disorders. Our main aim is to one day unlock the potential of protein and gene therapy of such diseases by the development of novel and efficient delivery technologies.

Your mission

We are seeking a highly motivated person to join the group of Professor Samir El-Andaloussi as a Postdoctoral Researcher to work on in situ production of engineered Extracellular vesicles for biomedical applications.

Most of the research will be conducted utilizing cell lines and animal models. The first part of the work will involve evaluating various gene therapy modalities in vivo to deliver EV engineering transgene for modifying endogenous EVs, followed by assessing in vivo biodistribution of in situ produced EVs by luciferase or fluorescence labelling. The second part will involve evaluating the delivery of protein biotherapeutics such as anti-inflammatory proteins using in situ EVs engineering in systemic inflammatory disease models. The third part will focus on CNS delivery of protein biotherapeutics using in situ EV engineering platform. To achieve this goal various brain targeting strategies will be evaluated in vivo. The final aim of the project will be to combine all these elements for the delivery of protein biotherapeutics in neurodegenerative diseases models that clinically mimic Parkinson’s disease using CNS targeted in situ EV engineering.

Your profile

Qualified to be employed as a postdoctor is one who has obtained a doctorate or has equivalent scientific competence. 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. 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) date of employment. This must be substantiated by the applicant's main supervisor, director or equivalent.

Entry requirements and qualifications

The applicant should have a solid background in Extracellular vesicles and synthetic drug delivery vector field. The position requires experience in practical lab experience in the following areas; EV production and characterization, Lipid nanoparticle formulation, DNA cloning, expression analysis on the protein (Immunoblotting, ELISA, and IP) and RNA level (qPCR). Extensive experience in cell culture work and different microscopy techniques (ICC, IHC, EM). The project will include animal work which requires that the applicant has extensive animal work experience and must hold a FelasaC certificate.

In addition, excellent proficiency in both spoken and written English is essential. We are looking for an energetic and passionate person who fits in, and actively contributes to our team.

What do we offer?

Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. Our vision is to pursue the development of knowledge about life and to promote better health for all. At Karolinska Institutet, we conduct innovative medical research and provide the largest range of biomedical education in Sweden. Karolinska Institutet is a state university, which entitles employees to several benefits such as extended holiday and a generous occupational pension. Employees also have free access to our modern gym and receive reimbursements for medical care.

Location: Flemingsberg

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 at the latest 2022-03-16.

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

Want to make a difference? Join us and contribute to better health for all