Job number : B.21.EK.JH.45
Closing date: 23-05-2021
The position
The department of Pulmonology is looking for an enthusiastic postdoc for a project focusing on cell culture models of alveolar injury and repair in lung diseases. Do you enjoy working with cell culture, and are you experienced with human induced pluripotent stem cells? If yes, this might be the perfect position for you!
Progressive destruction of the gas exchange unit of the lungs (alveoli) is a hallmark of a range of acute and chronic lung diseases. Destruction of this gas unit, such as in emphysema in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), is progressive and currently untreatable. Consequently, COPD is one of the main causes of death worldwide. This disconcerting situation has resulted in the initiative for a national consortium, P4O2, and this is where you come in! The P4O2 program aims to identify treatable traits and innovative personalized therapeutic strategies to both prevent progression of early stage damage and to reverse established lung damage by stimulating repair. The overall goal of this specific project within P4O2 is to develop and combine all tools necessary to allow target identification and screening of therapeutic strategies for lung regenerative medicine on a medium to high-throughput level. You will focus on optimizing the efficiency of alveolar type-2 generation from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) and use the generated alveolar type-2 cells to develop Alveolus Lung-Chip damage models. The Department of Pulmonology works with a variety of advanced cell cultures models including commercial Lung-Chips, which will form the foundation for development of these models.
Your profile
We are looking for a passionate postdoc with affinity for respiratory research. You hold a PhD, and you have experience with human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC. Furthermore, it is appreciated if you are familiar with organs-on-chips technology, and that you work structured and highly organized. You are an enthusiastic team player who is dedicated, and always curious.
What we offer
You will be employed on the basis of a 36-hour week. Appointment is for the duration of education, 2 years. Your salary will depend on your qualifications and experience, with a maximum of € 4,615 gross per month based on a 36-hour week (scale 10, CAO UMC).
Working at the LUMC
The LUMC, situated in Leiden, the Netherlands, is an academic medical centre for patient care, research and education, aiming to meet the challenges of tomorrow’s health care. It has a strong focus on research, connecting and combining fundamental research into disease-causing mechanisms with patient-focussed studies in areas like oncology, regenerative medicine and population health. The LUMC has research facilities that include capabilities for multiple appliances. The combination with clinical and societal outreach programmes allows for ground-breaking research and innovation in basic and applied science.
Within the LUMC, the Department of Pulmonology is a clinical department that primarily focuses on thoracic oncology and regenerative medicine. Their scientific research strives for international impact through integration of human clinical research with basic scientific research using advanced cell culture models. The research laboratory consists of a team of ten to fifteen people, including students, PhD-students and postdocs headed by prof. dr. Pieter S. Hiemstra. As this project is embedded within the P4O2 program, the work will be performed in collaboration with Ncardia and with academic partners at the UMCG (Groningen) and Maastricht University.
More information
A detailed job description can be found at
www.lumc.nl/vacancies. You may also contact dr. Anne van der Does, senior researcher, department of Pulmonology, telephone +31 (0)71 526 32 61
How to apply
Apply via our online form.