Karolinska Institutet,

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 Clinical Research Centre (CRC), where the project will be carried out is a common resource for researchers from different departments at Karolinska Institutet and/or clinics at Karolinska University Hospital. The major part of the clinical research at Karolinska University Hospital is performed at CRC, presently comprising some 20 research groups with over 150 employees. 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. We are also developing methods for large-scale production and purification of such exosome therapeutics. 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 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.

Duties
We are seeking a highly motivated person to join the group of Associate Professor Samir El-Andaloussi as a Postdoctoral Researcher to work on better understanding the in vivo target cells of bioengineered extracellular vesicles (EVs) following systemic delivery.

We would like to embark on a project that utilizes single cell RNA-sequencing to understand the specific cell types that are targeted by exogenous EVs. This will involve optimizing the dissociation of different organs in order to capture transduced cells and preparing them for RNA-sequencing. Following this, the sequencing data will have to be processed using methods suitable for defining and discerning the identities of the cell types captured.

Entry requirements
Qualified to be employed as a postdoctor is one who has obtained a doctorate or has equivalent scientific competence.

Qualifying to be employed as post-doctoral student according to the collective agreement (PKA) is the one who holds a doctoral degree within the past three years.

The applicants should have a solid background in basic biology and bioinformatics. The position requires practical lab experience in dissociation protocols, fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) and RNA-sequencing library preparation. Bioinformatic experience is essential, and should include knowledge of raw data processing, as well as appropriate coding languages such as R and python.

The project will include animal work, and thus it would be beneficial for the applicant to hold a FELASA certificate. Prowess in both spoken and written English is essential. We are looking for an energetic and passionate person who actively contributes to our team and can independently execute the proposed project.

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

  1. 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
  2. A complete list of publications
  3. A summary of current work (no more than one page)

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

Type of employment Temporary position
Contract type Full time
First day of employment Enligt överenskommelse
Number of positions 1
Full-time equivalent 100
City Huddinge
County Stockholms län
Country Sweden
Reference number 2-178/2019
Contact
  • Samir El Andaloussi, 08-5248000
Union representative
  • Carina Eklund, OFR, 08-5248000
  • Emilie Hultin, SACO, 08-5248000
  • Karin Olsson, SEKO, 08-5248000
Published 10.Jan.2019
Last application date 31.Jan.2019 11:59 PM CET

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