Position
One PhD position is available at University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany within the newly funded Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Transregional Collaborative Research Center (SFB / TR 240) “Platelets – Molecular, Cellular and Systemic Functions under Physiological and Pathological Conditions”. The project will start in July 2018 and runs until June 2022. Salary is based on TV-L (E-13, 65%).
Project Description
The selected candidate will investigate the ‘Role of the Platelet Cytoskeleton in Platelet Biomechanics’. Briefly, circulating platelets are essential players in haemostasis and thrombosis. Interestingly, mutations in several genes of cytoskeletal-regulatory proteins have been identified to cause inherited thrombocytopenia. However, how defects in cytoskeletal-regulatory proteins affect biomechanical properties of platelets and how translates into increased risk of bleeding are only poorly explored. The PhD candidate will have access to relevant disease models and innovative biophysical tools to quantitatively describe the underlying ‘biophysical’ and ‘biomechanical’ aspects of platelet cytoskeleton-associated defects in platelet function.Selected candidate will have access to cutting-edge scientific infrastructure, highly innovative projects in an excellent scientific environment and opportunities to collaborate with national and international research groups.
Our profile
We are an interdisciplinary team consisting of bioengineers, biophysicists and platelet biologists. The PhD candidate will be based in the Department of Transfusion Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald (supervised by Dr. Raghavendra Palankar) and will closely collaborate with Dr. Oliver Otto (Group Leader-Biomechanics, ZI HIKE, Greifswald) and Dr. Markus Bender (Group Leader-Megakaryocyte and Platelet, Department of Experimental Biomedicine, University Würzburg).
Your profile
Candidates with a Diploma/Master degree in Natural Sciences (Biology/Bio-Technology/Chemistry/Physics) career interest in biophysics are encouraged to apply. Ideally, the candidate has high interest in cellular biomechanics. The project requires previous experience in at least one or more of the following skills: force spectroscopy, microfluidics, quantitative imaging, MATLAB /Mathematica/COMSOL Multiphysics, data analysis skills and handling of microscopes. Scientific communication skills in English are necessary.Disabled applicants will be preferentially considered in case of equivalent qualification. The University Medicine Greifswald seeks to increase the number of women and therefore explicitly encourages them to apply.
Application
Interested candidates should send their application until August 15th, 2018 including curriculum vitae (max. two pages), one page description of past research experience and contact details of two references to palankarr@uni-greifswald.de preferably as a signle PDF file in an email attachment.
