PhD fellowship (fleksible) in Adhesion G protein-coupled receptor signal transduction

We are offering a PhD fellowship in adhesion GPCR signal transduction commencing 1 September 2024 or after agreement.
The position is for an integrated programme. The duration of the integrated programme is up to five years, and depends on the amount of credits that you have passed on your MSc programme

Our group and research
You will join the Mathiasen Group at the Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology (Molpharm) in the Department of Biomedical Sciences. The Mathiasen group is one of multiple groups at Molpharm studying G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The Laboratory offers a dynamic and social work environment, where students at all levels (BSc, MSc, and PhD), postdocs, technicians and scientists from various cultures work together on a variety of interdisciplinary projects, and you will engage and collaborate with several colleagues in the lab.

In the Mathiasen group we focus on investigating the signaling properties and unexplored biology of Adhesion GPCRs and the implications of this receptor family in human health and disease.

Project description
The project aims to characterize and understand the cellular signaling properties of the adhesion GPCR ADGRL3. ADGRL3 has been implicated in ADHD and other psychiatric disorders that involve dopamine dysfunction, such as schizophrenia. ADGRL3 is expressed in the brain, and is composed of a giant protein structure that both binds ligands across the synapse and controls intracellular signaling. Yet many of ADGRL3 basic functions remain unexplored, and understanding the cellular actions of ADGRL3 is a critical milestone towards future drug development efforts.

The successful candidate will primarily use a combination of plate-based GPCR signaling assays, biophysical assays and advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques to study ADGRL3. The project will also involve general molecular biology techniques and data analysis of both plate-based and microscopy-based results.

Principal supervisor is Assistant Professor, Signe Mathiasen, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Signe.Mathiasen@sund.ku.dk, Direct Phone: 61658536.

Start:                  The position is open from 1 September 2024 or after agreement.

Duration:          Integrated programme(up to 5 years) as a 4+4 or 3+5 PhD Student, read about the structure here: https://healthsciences.ku.dk/phd/apply/routes-to-a-phd/flexible-phd-programmes/

Job description
Your key tasks as a PhD student at SUND are to:

• Carry out an independent research project under supervision.
• Complete PhD courses or other equivalent education (approx. 30 ECTS points.)
• Participate in active research environments including a stay at another research team
• Obtain experience with teaching or other types of dissemination related to your PhD project
• Teach and disseminate your knowledge
• Write a PhD thesis based on your project
   

Key criteria for the assessment of applicants
Applicants must be enrolled in a relevant Masters Programme related to the subject area of the project, e.g. Biophysics, Nanoscience, Biochemistry, Biology, Pharmaceutical Science, Molecular Pharmacology, or human biology.

Other important criteria are:

• The grade point average achieved
• Previous publications or manuscripts in preparation
• English communication skills (both oral and written)
• Professional qualifications relevant to the PhD project  
• Work experience relevant to the PhD project:
  • Experience with mammalian cell culture
  • Experience with standard molecular biology techniques
  • Experience with adhesion GPCR or general GPCR luminescence-based signaling assays, and with designing, optimizing, and controlling such assays is an advantage
  • Experience with cell-matrix, cell-substrate and cell-cell contact assays is an advantage.
  • Experience with standard bioinformatics software, e.g. Geneious Prime or SNAPgene
  • Experience with Graphpad Prism and other platforms for plotting and treating data is an advantage
• A curious mind-set with a strong interest in the molecular scale basis for adhesion GPCR function
   

Place of employment
The place of employment is at the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in dynamic and international research environment. Our research facilities include modern laboratories and state-of-the-art equipment.

Terms of employment
The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week.

Until the MSc degree is obtained, (when exactly two years of the full 3+5 programme remains), the grant will be paid partly in the form of 48 state education grant portions (in Danish: “SU-klip”).
A PhD grant portion is currently (2024) DKK 6.820 before tax.

When you have obtained the MSc degree, you will transfer to the salary-earning part of the scholarship for a period of two years. At that point, the terms of employment and payment will be according to the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State (AC). The position is covered by the Protocol on Job Structure.

The employment is conditioned upon the applicant’s success­ful enrolment as a PhD student at the Graduate School at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project formulated by the applicant.

The PhD study must be completed in accordance with The Ministerial Order on the PhD programme (2013) and the Faculty’s rules on achieving the degree.

Questions
For specific information about the PhD fellowship, please contact the principal supervisor. Signe.Mathiasen@sund.ku.dk

General information about PhD studies at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences is available at the Graduate School’s website: https://healthsciences.ku.dk/phd/guidelines/

Application procedure
Your application must be submitted electronically by clicking ‘Apply now’ below. The application must include the following documents in PDF format: 

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page)

2. CV incl. education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position

3. Certified copy of transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in other language than English or Danish.

4. Publication list (if possible)

Application deadline: 5 May 2024. 23:59 CET
We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process
After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor.

The assessor makes a non-prioritized assessment of the academic qualifications and experience with respect to the above-mentioned area of research, techniques, skills and other requirements listed in the advertisement.

Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.

You find information about the recruitment process at: https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

The applicants will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.