Student (f/m/d) for a Master Thesis

Human brain development involves intricate neurodevelopmental processes vulnerable to harmful chemicals. Current DNT regulatory guidelines rely on animal testing, which is both scientifically limited and ethically problematic. In this project, you will be part of a transformative shift in toxicology focusing on animal-free, human-relevant methods. Your role will be to characterize previously developed in vitro new approach methodologies for human risk assessment of chemicals. In order to increase regulatory confidence in these assays we aim to characterize their protein content and epigenomic characteristics.

First, you will cultivate the selected in vitro models to quantify their protein content using the BCA assay. Your results will be further used to create a model that allows us to predict the distribution of chemicals in the different in vitro compartments. Second, you will cultivate the selected in vitro models to analyze their epigenomic characteristics and see how they influence the key neurodevelopmental processes. The selected in vitro models used during this internship will cover the assays from the OECD-supported DNT in vitro battery. The epigenomic task will be focused on one in vitro model from the battery, namely the 3D neurospheres.

This master thesis work will be carried out in the framework of the European H2020 project ONTOX which aims to advance human risk assessment of chemicals without the use of animals.

We are looking for a motivated, proactive student who is enthusiastic about pushing the boundaries of science. You should meet the following requirements: