PhD student (m/f/d)

Todays therapy for pediatric solid tumors is based on highly toxic chemotherapy and treatment outcome improvements are stalling. Our laboratory thus focusses on the development of molecularly targeted treatment strategies aiming at both improving patients’ outcome and overcoming serious toxicities, by combining highly relevant preclinical modeling with patient-derived primary cells, CRISPR-Cas9-based screening approaches and state-of-the-art molecular readouts. In previous studies, this highly successful approach enabled us to identify novel targeted therapy combinations with pronounced anti-tumor effects.
The current project aims to further investigate the increasingly recognized realm of post-transcriptional gene regulation. Here, both the role of RNA-binding-proteins (RBPs) and the protein turnover machinery is a yet to be exploited area for targeted therapies in pediatric cancers, which we aim to explore for synergistic antineoplastic activities that can enhance or replace current treatment regimens. We will achieve this with CRISPR-Cas-based functional genomics (high throughput), classical transcriptional perturbations (overexpression), innovative transcriptional and epigenetic profiling and the use of state-of-the-art model systems to uncover both pro-tumorigenic effects and the interplay with therapy resistance. Cellular characterization and molecular analyses for the targeted pathways, as well as extensive pharmacological targeting in vitro and in vivo will be applied for downstream molecular characterization and identification of pediatric cancer vulnerabilities towards improved patient treatment.

Your profile:

• A Master’s degree (or comparable) in Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Genetics and/or Molecular Biology, or related disciplines
• Substantial skills in cell biology (cell culture) and molecular biology
• Organizational and team skills, flexibility, open-mindedness, curiosity, responsible work ethics and a passion for scientific research
• Working independently and as part of a young, dynamic and international team
• High intrinsic motivation and enthusiasm to work in a competitive, dynamic, stimulating, and interacting international scientific environment focusing on basic biological research
• Proficiency in spoken and written English

We offer:

• The position (TV-L, E13, 65%) is initially limited to 2 years with the possibility of extension
• A professional career development program for PhD students (GRADE)
• The opportunity to implement your ideas and work in an innovative, very well-equipped and scientifically stimulating environment with a dynamic interdisciplinary team of highly motivated PhD students
• Co-supervision of Bachelor, Master and MD students
• Our research group is located at the Institute of Experimental Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at the University Hospital of the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany, which offers an excellent infrastructure and a highly international, vibrant and collaborative research community.