PhD studentship on Cancer Immunology & Immunotherapy

(ref. BAP-2022-556)

Laatst aangepast : 18/07/2022

The Laboratory for Cell Stress & Immunity, at KU Leuven, Belgium seeks a highly motivated PhD student Broad Research Topic: Next-generation immune-biomarkers to improve clinical immunotherapy outlook for paediatric and adult glioblastoma: a multi-omics, translational immunology-, and artificial intelligence-driven approach Description: This position is available at KU Leuven within the context of a research project at the interface of fundamental translational research and clinical setting funded by the Olivia Hendrickx Research Fund (OHRF) program. OHRF aims to promote research into brain tumors, with particular attention to paediatric setting. Every year in Belgium about 50 children are affected by a malignant brain tumor. Many different brain tumors exist, but the most aggressive form are malignant gliomas (e.g., glioblastoma). Despite intensive treatment (combination of surgery, radiotherapy or 'radiation' and chemotherapy), patients do not survive more than 15 months on average. The tumor therefore remains incurable – in children and adults. For more, see here: https://www.olivia.be/ Our project brings together a translational immunology research group led by Prof. Abhishek D. Garg, further working together with the groups of Prof. Steven De Vleeschouwer (specializing in adult brain cancers) and Prof. Sandra Jacobs (specializing in paediatric brain cancers). This project’s aims are located at the interface of the immunobiology of glioblastoma, multi-omics bioinformatics, and translational immunotherapy. With this project we ambitiously aim to go significantly beyond the current state-of-the-art, by proposing innovative and interdisciplinary research theme, integrating methodology from various fields of glioblastoma biology, immunology & immunotherapy; and cover all levels from integrated omics to translational immunotherapy and biomarker discovery.

Project

The currentPhD position is available for a highly motivated candidate within the researchgroup of Prof. Abhishek D. Garg. The recruited PhD student will performtranslational & multi-omics research focused on discovery ofnext-generation immune-biomarkers to improve clinical immunotherapy outlook forpaediatric and adult glioblastoma through different state-of-the-art approachesintegrating multi-omics, translational immunology, and artificialintelligence-driven methodologies.

Profile

• You must hold a MD or MSc/Masters’ degree in medicine,biotechnology, biosciences, biomedicine, bioinformatics, or equivalent relatedfields from a recognized university. Preference will be given to MD (medicine)students seeking to do a PhD.
• You must have demonstrated following skills: cell culture, basicanimal handling, basic in vitro experiments, basic analytical analyses, basiclaboratory skills, basic data analyses & statistics.
• You must have solid knowledge of immunology, oncology, cancerbiology and/or omics analyses.
• Practical knowledge and skills in immuno-oncology, advancedbioinformatics or glioblastoma biology would be a plus.
• You should be a team player with good oral and written (English)communication skills.

Key Responsibilities (include but are not limited to):

• Performing experiments dealing with molecular & cell biology,immune activation mechanisms, bioinformatics, immunology and in vivo tumorimmunology & immunotherapy.
• Delivering presentations (oral or poster) inconsortium/institutional seminars and national/international symposiums orconferences.
• Eager to carry out visitations (if required) to otherlaboratories (within Belgium or abroad) for learning new techniques.
• Eager to co-supervise the thesis projects of master’s students.

Offer

• At least a 4-year contract (although we do encourage the candidate to apply for a personal PhD fellowship to be part of this program for a longer period).
• Access to state-of-the-art infrastructures and active collaborations with well-known Belgian or international laboratories.
• A stimulating, international research environment in a world-class academic laboratory and the opportunity to interact with several highly collaborative, world-class investigators part of this program.

Interested?

For more information please contact Prof. dr. Abhishek Garg, tel.: +32 16 37 93 40, mail: [email protected] or Prof. dr. Steven De Vleeschouwer, tel.: +3216344610, mail: [email protected].

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