PhD position in next generation placental pharmacology

Development of the placenta is key to the success of early human life, and prepares us humans for lifelong health and protection against diseases. Recent advances in technologies that study the human placenta have generated groundbreaking opportunities to study the role of placental biology in early human development and disease. At the Erasmus MC Placenta Lab, we apply these groundbreaking models including ex vivo placental perfusion studies, wire myography, trophoblast organoids, placental explants, single-cell sequencing technology and the "placenta-on-chip", to explore new avenues for finding answers to one of the greatest challenges in human life: how can we design strategies to improve lifelong health before we are born?

You will be working in a multi-disciplinary environment based at the Erasmus MC Sophia Children's Hospital, collaborating closely with other scientists and clinicians in our program on Advanced Placental Phenotyping and Placental Pharmacology to study how existing and new compounds interact with the placenta, and with the blood vessels isolated from the placenta. This involves understanding placental physiology to help design and test new drug therapies on person-specific placental tissue or placental organoids. You will work in a team of fundamental scientists including pharmacologists, reproductive and developmental biologists, and clinicians from the obstetrics and neonatology field. The aim of your work is to develop new breakthrough diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to cure placenta-related disorders such as fetal growth restriction and preeclampsia, and target development of diseases at the earliest possible moments in life, long before you are born.