Vacancy number
15621
Job type
PhD positions
Hours (in fte)
1,0
External/ internal
External
Location
Leiden
Placed on
15 April 2025
Closing date
15 May 2025 30 more days to apply
The Division of BioTherapeutics at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) is looking for a:

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease and a prominent underlying condition of cardiovascular disease. Despite the availability of lipid lowering drugs, cardiovascular diseases remain a major contributor to mortality and the leading cause of death worldwide. Current strategies are aimed at adding novel therapeutic agents on top of the standard therapeutic moieties, adopting the one-size-fits-all dogma. This strategy has several major limitations including unaddressed heterogeneity of patients. To improve the prediction of the actual cardiovascular risk of individual patient, novel markers of disease are needed. In this project, we aim to identify circulating inflammatory markers that reflect plaque immune cell signatures to stratify patients for plaque phenotype and disease outcomes. The PhD student will join our enthusiastic team studying the different immune aspects of atherosclerotic lesion development to discover new biomarkers and therapeutic targets for the treatment of atherosclerosis.

SELECTION CRITERIA

We are looking for an enthusiastic, bright, well-motivated, and ambitious scientist:

• With a recent Master degree in Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, Biology, Medical Biology, or equivalent
• With a strong interest in and experienced with immunological research
• With experience with in vivo studies (artikel 9, proefdierkunde), flow cytometry, single cell technology (working in R), microscopical techniques and molecular biology is an advantage
• With proficiency in English, both verbally and in writing
• Who is an independent and creative team player with good communicative skills

The aim of your PhD project is to provide fundamental knowledge regarding immune cell signatures in cardiovascular disease, in particular atherosclerosis. You will 1) identify associations between circulating and plaque immune cells and plaque instability parameters, 2) map distribution and communication signals of immune and non-immune plaque cells and 3) establish causal relationships and mechanistic insights into inflammatory pathways in atherosclerosis.
You will use a combination of murine and human atherosclerotic materials and will closely collaborate with researchers in the national “AtheroNeth” consortium, funded by the Dutch Heart Foundation.