PhD candidate on Early-life Microbiome, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, School...

We are recruiting a PhD student to study Host-Microbiome-Diet interactions in early life.

Newborns transit from an environmentally protected and sterile situation in utero to microbial and environmental exposure after birth on their way to establish a stable hostmicrobial homeostasis. Within our research group, and in close collaboration with our partners in our Euregional Microbiome Center (www.microbiomecenter.eu ), we aim to understand the natural process of the maturation of the microbiota and the impact of host and dietary factors in this process. In addition, the role of microbial perturbations in the onset of non-communicable diseases and the susceptibility to infections are main topics within this research line.

As PhD student you will be part of an exciting research program in the ‘Microbiome’ group headed by Associate Prof. John Penders (www.penderslab.com ) in which epidemiological birth cohorts, in vitro models and murine in vivo models are combined. You will be working in an innovative and scientifically stimulating environment. Being embedded within our research school NUTRIM (Nutritional & Translational Research in Metabolism) and the Euregional Microbiome Center you will have unique training opportunities. You will be trained and supervised in cutting edge technologies (e.g., fluorescent bacterial sorting, whole metagenome sequencing, computational biology and metagenomic epidemiology). You will present your research work at leading international conferences.

A double/joint PhD degree with one of the Euregional Microbiome Center partner institutes belongs to the possibilities.