Doktorand (PhD Student) in Oncology with Focus on Breast Cancer Research (PA2024/1706)

Description of the workplace
The Breast and Lung cancer research group at Division of Translational Cancer Research, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Lund University (located at Medicon Village Lund), is now looking for a PhD student for research education in the PhD project ”Molecular analyses of breast cancer to target the genotype - phenotype link”.

The research group is in an expansive phase and involves pre-clinical PhD students, post docs, and assistant researchers in the fields of molecular biology, genomics and bioinformatics. Currently, the research group is lead by Senior Lecturer Johan Staaf and involves approximately 18 individuals with different activities / responsibilities and organization placement (Lund University and Region Skåne) based on a highly integrated collaboration with a parallel research group at the Division of Oncology, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University. 

Read more about Senior Lecturer Johan Staaf and his ongoing projects here. 

What we offer
Lund University is a public authority, which means that you will have special benefits, generous annual leave and an advantageous occupational pension. We also have a flexitime agreement that creates good conditions for work/life balance. Read more on the University’s website about being a Lund University employee, Work at Lund University

Work duties and areas of responsibility
In addition to following the study plan for the doctoral education, as well as participating in relevant courses for the education, the position is focused on bioinformatic research with a particular focus on breast cancer. The PhD position involve projects aimed at breast cancer genomics, bioinformatic pipeline development, machine-learning, and integrative analyses of different -omics technologies (DNA, RNA, epigenetics) and image data analysis. Tasks include data analysis, method development, result summarization, project planning and scientific writing. Our goal is to gain a better understanding of breast cancer as a disease and how tumor cells interact with non-malignant cells. Thereby, we hope to derive new tools for improved prognostication and treatment prediction.

The PhD thesis will be performed at the Division of Translational Cancer Research. At this site there is an interactive environment within and between research groups, as well as with divisions in other departments within the Medical Faculty. This includes PhD student journal clubs, seminars, courses, and poster evenings. Moreover, there is a large number of Lund University Cancer Center events occurring on a regular basis. The PhD student must actively participate in internal, regional, national, and international scientific meetings and seminars and other important meetings and present the project at meetings in accordance with the study plan. Moreover, the PhD student will be encouraged to participate in teaching and to assume responsibilities for internal activities within the division.

The doctoral student has further responsibility to:

• Seek contact with the colleagues who best support a discussion about the results.
• Find avenues for career support.
• Formulate, develop and optimize the ways of communication with supervisors and colleagues that best promote the doctoral student's working methods and aspects.

Qualifications

Requirements for the position are:

• MSc in bioinformatics
• Experience in bioinformatic analyses of multi-omic data from solid tumors, including gene expression data, epigenetic data, mutation analyses, as well as survival analyses and descriptive statistics.
• Experience in development of image-based analyses of tumor tissue.
• Substantial experience and excellent proficiency in relevant programming languages, including R and Python.
• Very good reading and writing comprehension, as well as oral communication.

Additional qualifications for the position are:

• Additional degree (MSc or BSc) / background in molecular biology, biosciences or similar.
• Previous experience in working/participating in breast cancer related research projects including genomic analyses, image-based analyses, and survival analyses
• Participation in scientific research projects that have resulted in peer-reviewed publications
• Previous teaching experience in bioinformatics at BSc or MSc levels.

Eligibility
Students with basic eligibility for third-cycle studies are those who- have completed a second-cycle degree- have completed courses of at least 240 credits, of which at least 60 credits are from second-cycle courses, or- have acquired largely equivalent knowledge in some other way, in Sweden or abroad.

Assessment basis
The employment of doctoral students is regulated in the Swedish Code of Statues 1998: 80. Only those who are or have been admitted to PhD-studies may be appointed to doctoral studentships. When an appointment to a doctoral studentship is made, the ability of the student to benefit from PhD-studies shall primarily be taken into account. In addition to devoting themselves to their studies, those appointed to doctoral studentships may be required to work with educational tasks, research and administration, in accordance with specific regulations in the ordinance.

Type of employment
Limit of tenure for four years on fulltime, according to HF 5 kap 7§, with start from July 1st, 2024, or according to agreement.

How to apply
You apply for the position via the University’s recruitment system. The application is to include a personal letter describing how you meet the qualification requirements and why you are interested in the position. The application is also to include a CV with a copy of your degree and any other documents to which you wish to draw attention (copies of degree certificates, grade transcripts, details of referees, letters of recommendation, etc.)