Biology or biomedical sciences PhD student position for 6 months which can be extended with another...

Context:

If anticancer X-ray radiotherapy has been used from the 1940’s, proton radiotherapy is a young irradiation technique that has been introduced in the 21st century. Only few elements are known concerning the metabolic response of cancer cells to protontherapy. Hence, metabolic alterations are likely to cause radioresistance and to promote tumor aggressiveness, notably by stimulating the emergence of cancer stem cells and by triggering the metastatic process. A consortium gathering four teams at UNamur and UCLouvain has formed to work on this challenging thematic. Together, we will develop technologies at the state of the art and unique models that will serve to compare the metabolic responses of breast cancer cells to X-ray versus protontherapy.

Work environment:

The work will be carried out mainly in the LARN laboratory at the University of Namur and at UCLouvain.

Job position:

The applicant will carry out a PhD thesis and to identify metabolic modulators of the response to radiotherapy (both using X-rays and protons). In particular he/shell will work on intrinsic and acquired radioresistance on a set of breast cancer cell models, well characterized in our labs. Findings will be generalized on HNSCC cancer cells. In a second step, the applicant will investigate irradiation-induced phenotypic changes in cancer cells (stemness and tumor recurrence).

Application:

The application, consisting of a CV, a motivation letter and the contact details of two reference persons, must be sent to Prof. Anne-Catherine Heuskin, by e-mail by August 31st 2021 at the latest.