The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine an internationally leading institute in veterinary scientific education, research and associated patient care. It ranks number one in Europe and among the top five institutes of veterinary science world-wide and is accredited by the American Medical Veterinary Association and the Canadian Medical Veterinary Association.
The Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology invites applications for a PhD Researcher Role of lipids in liver fibrosis (1,0 fte)
Job description
As a PhD researcher you will participate in the project “Lipid metabolism in hepatic stellate cell activation and its role in liver regeneration”. Chronic liver diseases comprise a significant clinical problem both in humans and in companion animals like dogs. A critical step in the development of chronic liver disease is the transition from the so-called inflammatory stage to the fibrotic stage. An important role in this transition is played by hepatic stellate cells (HSC). Hence therapies based on the “on and off switching” of HSC into the activated state and back into the lipid droplet-containing (“fat storing”) phenotype may be clinically relevant. Furthermore the cellular communication between the hepatic stellate cells and the neighboring other liver cell types influences the process of liver regeneration.
The main objective of this project is to unravel the (retinoid) lipid-related pathways involved in the transformation of hepatic stellate cells into a pathological “activated state”. This project also aims to study the changes in lipid metabolism during activation of the HSCs in the physiological context of the liver in mice in which specific lipid metabolizing proteins have been knocked-out.
You will work with an experienced, collaborative and international group of colleagues and an excellent infrastructure that integrates molecular biology, biochemistry, life-cell imaging, and a state of the art lipidomics facility. You will also participate in the graduate program “Biomembranes” and will be well embedded in the focus areas of our faculty (tissue repair) and of Utrecht University.
Terms of employment
You will be offered a temporary full-time appointment of one year with the perspective of prolongation with another three years. The gross salary starts at € 2,042,- and increases to € 2,612,- gross per month in the fourth year of the appointment (salary scale P Collective Labour Agreement of the Dutch Universities).
Secondary benefits are excellent in general and include e.g. a pension scheme, flexible employment conditions and salaries are supplemented with a holiday and a year end bonus. Travel costs for international conferences and working meetings are also included.
