ERC-supported Postdoctoral fellow in Experimental diabetes research

ERC-supported Postdoctoral fellow in Experimental diabetes research

We are seeking a talented Post-Doctoral fellow for an ERC-supported project at the international forefront. You will investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying type 2 diabetes with the long-term goal of finding new anti-diabetic treatments.

As a Postdoc, you will have the support of Prof. Anders Rosengren as well as an extensive network within the Wallenberg Centre for Molecular and Translational Medicine, which involves world-leading scientists at four Swedish universities, AstraZeneca and SciLifeLab, which will provide you with the guidance and knowledge you need to develop your career. You will get the opportunity to present at international scientific conferences and publish high-profile papers. The project is supported by an ERC Consolidator project as well as by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

Job assignments

The project is truly translational and you will use human pancreatic islets as the starting point to identify the physiological and gene expression changes that contribute to defective insulin secretion in type 2 diabetes. Interesting observations have shown that there are of pools of beta-cells with different phenotype and functional capacity within an islet. Intriguingly, it has recently been demonstrated that the proportion of such pools is altered in type 2 diabetes. By defining the phenotype and proportion of cellular pools in diabetic and non-diabetic conditions in a more precise manner than has previously been possible, the project has the potential to considerably improve our understanding of beta-cell failure and its reversal. It may also lead to the identification of new targets that can be exploited for beta-cell preservation, which is one of the main goals of diabetes research and an urgent clinical need.

You will use a range of cell-physiological and cell-biological techniques as well as qPCR and transfection systems. In addition to the physiological studies you will work closely with experts on single-cell RNA sequencing to study the associated gene expression changes. The ability to couple single-cell gene expression with functional data is an exciting area that hasn’t been explored to its full potential, making this an opportunity to make a real difference to the future of medical science.

The translational profile of our team means that you will also be able to work with clinical researchers to test and validate the disease relevance of your experimental findings as we have previvously done in e.g. Rosengren AH et al., Science 2010, Tang Y et al., Science Translational Medicine 2014 and Axelsson AS et al., Science Translational Medicine 2017.

Assessment

You must have a PhD degree and is expected to have a strong record of scientific productivity with publications as first author in internationally renowned journals.

You must also extensive experimental background in cell physiology and/or gene expression studies. Previous research in the diabetes area is beneficial but not required. Strong scientific work ethics and your commitment to develop yourself as a scientist will be important evaluation criteria. 

You are expected to plan, execute and analyze experiments in an independent manner and to actively contribute scientifically to the group. You must have excellent oral and written communication skills in English and be an excellent team player.

The employment is for 24 months, 100% of full-time with the possibility for extension. Starting date; as soon as possible or as agreed. If you have questions regarding the position please contact Professor Anders Rosengren, email: anders.rosengren(a)gu.se (N.B. the application itself must be submitted online via the university system – follow the button above – and not by email)