Doctoral scholarship holder in the field of genetics of Alzheimer’s disease

The VIB-UAntwerp Center for Molecular Neurology in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences is looking for a full-time (100%)doctoral scholarship holderin the field of genetics of Alzheimer’s disease.

• You will work actively on the preparation and defence of a PhD thesis in the field of Alzheimer’s genetics. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a major global societal challenge and a threat to health care systems.  The Sleegers lab  uses advanced genomic technologies and computational genomics approaches to identify genetic variants affecting Alzheimer’s disease risk with the aim to gain a deeper molecular understanding of this devastating disease, and to translate these novel insights into meaningful actions for health care.  The PhD project will use technologies such as long-read DNA and RNA sequencing, spatial transcriptomics and single cell sequencing to unravel the transcriptional landscape of AD risk genes, with specific focus on recently identified strong risk genes.
• You will publish scientific articles related to the research project.

• You hold a Master degree in Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, Biomedicine or related discipline.
• You can demonstrate excellent study results.
• Your research qualities are in line with the faculty and university research policies .
• You act with attention to quality, integrity, creativity and cooperation.
• You have a strong interest in genomic technologies and/or analysis of –omics data.
• Prior experience with programming in R or Python, and with data analysis of –omics data is considered an advantage.
• You are highly motivated, enthusiastic, critical, and creative.
• You are proficient in verbal and written English.
• You have the ability to summarize data extracted from literature and to define research objectives.
• You have a passion for science, self-motivation, flexibility, and team spirit.

• We offer a doctoral scholarship for a period of two years. Following a positive evaluation, the scholarship can be renewed once for another two-year period. 
• The planned start date is 1 October 2021 or as soon as possible after that date. 
• Your monthly scholarship amount is calculated according to the scholarship amounts for doctoral scholarship holders on the pay scales for Contract Research Staff (Dutch: Bijzonder Academisch Personeel, BAP).
• You will work at the VIB-UAntwerp Center for Molecular Neurology in a world-class research environment with state of the art research facilities.
• Find out more about working at the University of Antwerp here .