PhD topic / position: Idiopathic ventricular fibrillation and its genetic background: functional...

PhD study programme: Physiology, Pathological Physiology, Medical Chemistry and Biochemistry
Specialization: Physiology
Form of the study: PhD full-time study
Workplace: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Markéta Bébarová, MD, PhD

Annotation:

Idiopathic ventricular fibrillation is a life-threatening disease with uncertain prognosis. Unknown cause of development of ventricular fibrillation significantly complicates its treatment. Despite absence of clinical symptoms of an arrhythmogenic disorder (beside the episode(s) of ventricular fibrillation), genetic variants in various genes including genes encoding structure of the cardiac ionic channels can be identified in some patients suffering with this disease. The content of this study will be to assess impact of a selected variant identified in a concrete patient with idiopathic ventricular fibrillation on the channel function (whole cell patch clamp technique, microelectrode array and other techniques, if necessary; experiments on human cardiac ionic channels expressed in a cell line and/or on patient-specific human induced pluripotent stem cells-derived cardiomyocytes). Th goal of this dissertation will be to explain development of arrhythmia in the selected variant and to estimate the risk arising from carrying the variant based on changes of electrophysiological properties of the studied cardiac ionic channel.

Grant Support: Grant Agency of MU – Specific Research, external grant project submitted

Availability of Workload or Project Financing (beyond the scholarship from MU):

Scholarship from the Specific Research at MU, workload from a grant project if assigned. Workload from the institutional budget is at discretion of the head of the department after the student is involved in teaching.

Brief requirements for the student according to current requirements of the doctoral board:

• completion of compulsory courses
• completion of compulsory internship abroad (at least 1 month-stay) or participation in an international project with results published/presented abroad or other form of direct participation on an international cooperation
• at least one first author publication in a journal with IF above the median IF in the field (or two first author publication in a journal with IF in Q3)
• participation in teaching of undergraduate students
• good passive as well as active knowledge of English
• basic knowledge of Czech beneficial

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Markéta Bébarová, MD, PhD ([email protected] )
- publication activity: 44 papers in extenso (29 in journals with IF - 25 original research papers and 4 review papers), h-index 10
- grant projects: e.g. AZV (16-30571A; 2016-2020); IGA MZd (NT14301-3/2013; 2013-2015); Grant Agency of MU (e.g. MUNI/A/1246/2020, MUNI/A/1307/2019); Internal Project of LF MU (MUNI/11/SUP/07/2020, MUNI/11/SUP/18/2020)
- international cooperation in the field of study: prof. Paul G.A. Volders, dr. Jordi Heijman (Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands), Dr. Georges Christé (Inserm, Lyon, France)
- supervised PhD students/PhD graduates: 2/0