PhD student in oncology - breast cancer (PA2022/2229)

Research group for breast and lung cancer
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women worldwide, with approximately 8000 new cases per year in Sweden. Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease at the molecular level. This heterogeneity translates into differences in clinical manifestation, patient therapies, and ultimately patient survival. There has been an intense focus on the molecular/genomic characteristics of breast cancer over the last decades. This has revealed intriguing new insights into the biology of the disease of which some findings have also now made its way into the clinic as treatment decision support tools.

However, therapeutic progress has been different for the current clinical subtypes of breast cancer. While the majority of breast cancer patients today receive some form of targeted therapy, there are still clinical subgroups of the disease for which we currently lack effective targeted treatment, potentially due to still unmet detailed molecular characterization.

Within the department we aim to maintain a good working environment based on mutual respect and consideration. We constantly strive to improve the conditions for work, development and participation for all employees.

The Breast and Lung cancer research group at Division of Oncology, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, is now looking for a PhD student for research education in the project ”Molecular analyses of ER-positive and HER2-negative breast cancer. Implications for patient outcome”. The position is full time for four years. Preliminary starting date is September 1st 2022 or upon agreement.

Work assignments
PhD education in bioinformatics with a particular focus on breast cancer, bioinformatics, machine learning and integrative -omics. The PhD education involve projects aimed at breast cancer genomics, bioinformatic pipeline development, and integrative analyses of different -omics technologies (DNA, RNA, epigenetics, proteogenomics) and image data involving e.g. tumor morphology. Tasks include data analysis, method development, result summarization, project planning and scientific writing. Our goal is to gain a better understanding of especially luminal-like breast cancer as a disease and thereby hopefully derive new tools for improved prognostication and treatment prediction.

The PhD thesis will be performed at the Division of Oncology, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, located at Medicon Village in Lund. 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 regular basis. The PhD student is expected to actively participate in internal, regional, national, and international scientific meetings and seminars. Moreover, the PhD student will be encouraged to participate in teaching and to assume responsibilities for internal activities within the division.

Qualifications
Applicants should fulfil the basic eligibility requirements for the Faculty of Medicine (see https://www.medicine.lu.se/study/phd-programme/prospective-phd students/entry-requirements) with a degree in a relevant subject for the project.

• Education in bioinformatics equivalent to Master of Science (MSc).
• Previous experience in working with high-dimensional -omics techniques and survival analysis, preferably in solid tumors.
• Proven computational skills in required programming languages, e.g. R.
• Excellent command of English, both written and spoken.

Meriting qualifications

• Additional academic degrees (MSc or BSc) in biomedical/molecular life science.
• Previous experience in working with breast cancer related research projects involving genomics and survival analysis.

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.

The employment of doctoral students is regulated in the Swedish Code of Statutes 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, four years according to HF 5 kap 7§.

The Department of Clinical Sciences Lund is one of six departments at the Faculty of Medicine. Clinical Sciences Lund cooperates closely with Skåne University Hospital and the Faculty of Medicine in order to optimize the conditions for preclinical and clinical translational research, research strategies and development, as well as education on both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.