Vacature PhD student in Computational Oncology

PhD student in Computational Oncology in Groningen

Education: WO  |  Hours: 36 hours per week
Salary: € 3.108 - € 3.939
Closing date: May 4

About the Project

Resistance to cancer therapy remains a major obstacle to durable treatment benefit. Increasing evidence suggests that metabolic rewiring and oxidative-stress adaptation enable tumour cells to survive radiotherapy, chemotherapy and radioligand therapy. In this PhD project, you will investigate how loss of ECHDC2 shapes these processes by integrating experimental, clinical and public transcriptomic datasets with state-of-the-art machine learning. The aim is to identify biomarkers, and candidate targetable vulnerabilities in therapy-resistant cancers.

Job Description

The project is carried out in collaboration with the group of Prof. Sven Rottenberg (University of Bern) and involves the computational analysis of large-scale transcriptomic data from experimental models, patient tumours and public datasets to define ECHDC2-linked metabolic rewiring associated with resistance to various therapies.

The PhD candidate will develop and apply computational workflows for bulk and single-cell RNA-seq and spatial profiling data, integrate project-generated data with clinically annotated cohorts and public resources, and help derive ECHDC2-associated transcriptional signatures and prioritised candidate vulnerabilities for downstream validation. The PhD candidate is expected to disseminate the findings in publications, poster presentations and talks within the UMCG and at (inter)national meetings.

Working Environment

This 4-year PhD position will be performed in the computational oncology group and co-supervised by Prof. Rudolf Fehrmann and Arkajyoti Bhattacharya. The group uses big-data approaches combined with machine learning (ML) to identify molecular, imaging, or clinicopathological patterns relevant to the pathophysiological behaviour and treatment response of tumours. The research group is embedded in the Department of Medical Oncology of the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) in the Netherlands, where oncological patient care is combined with preclinical and fundamental research on the biology and treatment of cancer.

The Department of Medical Oncology participates in the research institute MoHAD (Mechanisms of Health, Aging and Disease), where molecular biologists, pharmacists and clinicians work closely together, creating an optimal environment for studying cancer cell behaviour, molecular imaging of tumours, and novel approaches of cancer targeting.

What We Need

The PhD student will join an enthusiastic and multidisciplinary research group and should meet the following requirements:

• MSc degree in bioinformatics, computational biology, data science, systems biology, biomedical sciences, artificial intelligence, or a related field
• Experience with transcriptomic or other omics data analysis, statistics, and programming in R and/or Python
• Affinity with machine learning and translational cancer research; experience with large public datasets and/or spatial transcriptomics is an advantage
• Enthusiastic, self-motivated, ambitious and proactive team player with good communication skills in written and spoken English

What We Offer

A full-time appointment for a period of four years (36 hours a week), to be concluded with a PhD examination. After one year, your performance will be evaluated to decide whether there is sufficient progress for completing the PhD thesis within the remaining three years.
Your salary will be € 3.108 gross per month in the first year, and up to a maximum of € 3.939 gross per month in the fourth year (full-time). Additionally, UMCG offers an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% year-end bonus. The conditions of employment comply with the Collective Labour Agreement for Medical Centres (CAO-UMC).

For Questions About the Position

Any questions? Do contact us.