Stellenticket Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

The DFG-fun­ded Col­la­bo­ra­tive Rese­arch Cen­ter (CRC 1449) "Dyna­mic Hydro­gels at Bio­in­ter­faces" hosted by the Freie Uni­ver­si­tät Ber­lin com­pri­ses a series of theo­re­ti­cal and expe­ri­men­tal pro­jects, which aim for the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and elu­ci­da­tion of phy­si­co­che­mi­cal pro­per­ties of bio­lo­gi­cal hydro­gels (such as mucus and the gly­co­ca­lyx) that define the pro­tec­tive func­tion of such hydro­gels.

The pro­ject
We are see­king a highly moti­va­ted and com­mit­ted doc­to­ral can­di­date for a rese­arch pro­ject that addres­ses the role of the air­way mucins Muc5ac and Muc5b in the patho­ge­ne­sis and as a the­ra­peu­tic tar­get of inters­ti­tial lung disease (ILD) using a novel mouse model recently estab­lished in the group (Duerr J, et al. Nat Com­mun. 2020). A bet­ter under­stan­ding of the com­po­si­tion, struc­ture and func­tion of the mucus hydro­gel layer on air­way sur­faces is key to elu­ci­date the under­ly­ing disease mecha­nism and to iden­tify poten­tial the­ra­peu­tic tar­gets for the deve­lop­ment of new the­ra­pies for ILD.
The pro­ject is inte­gra­ted in the Col­la­bo­ra­tive Rese­arch Centre (CRC) / Son­der­for­schungs­be­reich (SFB) 1449 “Dyna­mic Hydro­gels at Bio­in­ter­faces”, where several rese­arch groups inves­ti­gate key phy­si­co­che­mi­cal and bio­phy­si­cal para­me­ters that deter­mine hydro­gel func­tion at bio­lo­gi­cal inter­faces in health and disease for pro­s­pec­tive deve­lop­ment of novel the­ra­peu­tic stra­te­gies.

The scho­l­ar­ship will be super­vi­sed by Dr. Julia Duerr and Prof. Mar­cus Mall at Cha­rité – Uni­ver­si­täts­me­di­zin Ber­lin, deputy spo­kes­per­son of the CRC 1449. The group’s main focus is the inves­ti­ga­tion of the disease mecha­nisms and the deve­lop­ment of new the­ra­peu­tic stra­te­gies for chro­nic lung disea­ses such as ILD and cystic fibro­sis (CF) (https://www.bihealth.org/en/research/research-groups/marcus-mall). Fur­ther­more, the awar­dees will become mem­ber of the CRC’s inte­gra­ted Rese­arch Trai­ning Group, which offers:

• Doc­to­ral scho­l­ar­ship with a dura­tion of 12 mon­ths and the pos­si­bi­lity of a fol­low up fun­ding wit­hin the CRC after ending of the scho­l­ar­ship
• Struc­tu­red sci­en­ti­fic qua­li­fi­ca­tion in an estab­lished rese­arch envi­ron­ment inclu­ding the par­ti­ci­pa­tion in a large selec­tion of qua­li­fi­ca­tion mea­su­res
• Inte­gra­tion in inter­di­sci­pli­nary and inter­ac­tio­nal rese­arch net­works
• Pos­si­bi­lity for rese­arch stays in inter­na­tio­nal labs of the CRC’s rese­arch net­work

We are loo­king for­ward to your app­li­ca­tion, which should con­tain the fol­lo­wing docu­ments:

• Let­ter of moti­va­tion (1 page), indi­ca­ting prior rese­arch expe­ri­en­ces and future goals
• CV (inclu­ding list of publi­ca­ti­ons if app­li­ca­ble)
• Copies of your bache­lor, mas­ter, or diploma degree (inclu­ding tran­script of records)
• At least two sup­port let­ters

Can­di­da­tes have to meet the requi­re­ments, which would qua­lify them for entry to a doc­to­ral pro­gram at the Cha­rité – Uni­ver­si­täts­me­di­zin Ber­lin. Stu­dents will be cho­sen on the basis of their pre­vious gra­des and aca­de­mic refe­ren­ces. The CRC 1449 encou­ra­ges, in par­ti­cu­lar, women as well as dis­ab­led per­sons to apply for the scho­l­ar­ships.

Awar­dees will receive a sti­pend of € 1.365 per month. An addi­tio­nal mate­rial cost allo­wance of € 103 per month will also be paid. A child care allo­wance may be gran­ted if app­li­ca­ble. Please visit http://www.sfb1449.de for fur­ther infor­ma­tion.

App­li­ca­ti­ons should be addres­sed via email until 07/31/2022 to the coor­di­na­tor of the CRC’s inte­gra­ted Rese­arch Trai­ning Group: irtg@sfb1449.de. Please send all docu­ments in a sin­gle PDF file and refer to the iden­ti­fier sfb1449_scho­l­ar­ship_ILD in your email.