Research Assistant – PhD position in molecular diagnostic virology

at  Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde

More than 480 staff members at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) contribute every day to improving the health of millions of people worldwide. Our researchers conduct more than 100 scientific projects in the fields of tropical medicine and international health. Our teaching staff welcomes more than 500 professionals from around the world each academic year to attend our highly regarded medical courses. Tens of thousands of travel and STI consultations take place in our clinic each year, and our internationally recognized reference laboratories examine many hundreds of thousands of samples. There is only one way we can accomplish these very diverse tasks: thanks to a great passion for our mission.
Within the Department of Clinical Sciences, the clinical virology unit, headed by Prof Koen Vercauteren, develops new tools for the diagnosis and study of viral diseases. The unit is embedded in ITM’s clinical reference lab that hosts the national reference laboratory for the diagnosis of infectious and tropical diseases. The department also hosts the Belgian National Reference Centre for Arboviruses and for sexually transmitted diseases.
In collaboration with the University of Leuven (KUL) Biosensors group (www.biosensors.be), headed by Prof. Jeroen Lammertyn, we are developing rapid diagnostic tests to detect hemorrhagic fever-causing viruses (such as: Ebola virus and Lassa virus). Commercially available tests for these pathogens, based on antigen detection, lack diagnostic accuracy in real-life situations. Moreover, gold standard nucleic acid amplification technologies (i.e. PCR) are not readily available at the point of care, especially not in low-and-middle-income countries like in Central and Western Africa, where these viruses are endemic or regularly cause outbreaks. Instead, within the Horizon Europe projects FORTIFIEDx (www.fortifiedx.eu) and DECIPHER (www.decipherproject.eu), we envision adopting isothermal nucleic acid amplification technologies (like Recombinase Polymerase Amplification; RPA) onto lab-on-a-chip microfluidic devices compatible for easy use at the point-of-care with high diagnostic accuracy.
We now open a PhD position on the laboratory development and clinical evaluation of RPA assays for viral hemorrhagic fever diagnosis. The PhD student will be based in the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, and will be enrolled in the KUL PhD program (Arenberg doctoral school, Leuven).

YOUR PROFILE

We are seeking for an enthusiastic and highly motivated PhD candidate to join our dynamic team.

• You hold a master’s degree in (bio)medical or pharmaceutical sciences, biochemistry, biotechnology, or a related field in life sciences.
• You have a background in applying molecular biology techniques preferentially in the microbiology (virology) field.
• You have knowledge on molecular diagnostic test development (such as primer design, and using NCBI blast)
• You have strong affinity for laboratory evaluations of diagnostic molecular tests.
• You take an interest in clinical performance evaluations of diagnostic tests and in clinical study management (e.g., study protocol development, biobanking).
• You hold statistical skills (e.g., for sample size, sensitivity, specificity, positive-, and negative-predictive value, limit-of-detection calculations)
• You have an interest in regulatory and ethical principles in diagnostic test development.
• You have an interest in viral haemorrhagic fevers (Ebola, Lassa).
• You have an interest in developing bioinformatic skills (basic programming skills in R and Python is an asset)
• You have strong conceptual, analytical, and scientific writing skills.
• You are a team player, have good communication skills, interest in student supervision, and a strong capacity for building multi-disciplinary working relationships.
• You have good planning and organizational skills.
• You are highly motivated and have affinity with ITM’s objectives and spirit.
• You have an interest to collaborate with research partners from low-and-middle-income countries
• You are flexible and willing to travel occasionally to Central and Western Africa (e.g. short durations of 2 weeks, 2 times per year).
• You speak and write English fluently, knowledge of French is a strong asset.

• You will contribute to the laboratory development of RPA assays for viral hemorrhagic fever detection.
• You will contribute to the clinical evaluation of RPA assays for viral hemorrhagic fever diagnosis.
• You will bring short-term research visits to low-and-middle-income countries like in Central and Western Africa.
• You will prepare a PhD-thesis within a period of four years.
• You will present findings at scientific conferences and write scientific manuscripts.
• You will write high quality publications for scientific journals.
• You will contribute to acquiring funding for viral diagnostic research within the group.
• You will build a network of internal and external collaborators.
• You will contribute to the research group’s management, including student supervision.