Postdoctoral position, pancreatic cancer research, diabetes and 3D imaging

The department of diagnostics and intervention is seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral fellow for a project focused on 3D mesoscopic imaging of the pancreas for applications and research within pancreatic cancer. The position is limited to two-year, full time and will be carried out at a lab facility on campus at Umeå University, Sweden. The deadline for application is November 4th.

Description of the project

The project is a collaboration between clinical, translational and basic science researchers with experience in surgery, pathology, diabetes research and 3D high-resolution imaging of the pancreas. Principal investigator is Oskar Franklin, MD, PhD at the Dept of Diagnostics and Intervention, Surgery and the project is a collaboration with Professor Ulf Ahlgren at the Dept of Medical and Translational Biology. The main part of the work will be carried out in Prof. Ahlgrens lab (webpage). The project uses innovative methods developed for diabetes research onto human pancreatic cancer applications, to improve understandning of microenviromental changes and applications for early detection and treatment. The work involved hands-on laborative and analytic work on samples from patients that are treated for pancreatic diseases. There will be opportunities to study both pancreatic cancer and diabetes using these techniques and to develop novel protocols for improved imaging and analysis. There will be opportunities for national and international collaboration.

Work responsibilities

• Collecting, storing and classifying tissue samples
• Tissue clearing and staining using immunihistochemisty, immunofluorescence, in situ, spatial transcriptomics
• Tissue analysis using high-end fluorescence and light sheet microscopy to generate high-resolution 3D imaging of samples
• Analysis of data generated from above mentioned tissue analysis
• Collaboration with clinicians working with surgery, pathology and oncology

Eligibility

A person who has been awarded a doctorate or a foreign qualification deemed to be the equivalent of a doctorate in medical/biomedical research is eligible for appointment as postdoctoral researcher. This eligibility requirement must be met no later than the time at which the appointment decision is made.

To be considered for the postdoctoral position, you also need to be skilled in speaking and writing in English and have a background in basic or translational research involving tissue handling and/or advanced microscopy.

Additional useful qualifications

Since appointment as a postdoctoral researcher is a career-development position for junior researchers, we are primarily interested in applicants who completed their doctoral degree no more than three years before the application deadline. If there are special reasons, an applicant who has completed their degree earlier than that may be considered. Special reasons include absence due to illness, parental leave, clinical practice, appointments of trust for a trade union organisation or other similar circumstances, and for relevant duties/assignments within the subject area.

Useful qualifications:

• Previous research experience in health and/or diseases involving the pancreas
• Previous experience with handling human/animal tissue and analysing expression of protein and RNA in tissue
• Previous experience with Imaris or similar software
• Previous experience with fluorescence and light-sheet imaging in 2D and/or 3D
• Ability to work independently

More information about the position

The appointment is a full-time, fixed-term position for two years with the possibility of extension to three years, in accordance with the terms of contract for fixed-term employment as a postdoctoral researcher from 1 February 2022.

Application

The application must include:

• A brief description of your research interests and a statement describing why you are interested in the position.
• CV
• List of publications
• Degree certificate from doctoral studies and other relevant degrees
• Contact details of two reference persons

The application must be written in Swedish or English. The application must be made via our e-recruitment system Varbi and must be received latest November 4th.

We look forward to receiving your application!