MSCA-DN PhD position: Development of new assays to accurate determine functional micronutrient body status

Functieomschrijving

Research fellowship 1 (RF1): Development of new assays to accurate determine functional micronutrient body status.
Duration: 36 months.

Do you have affinity for instrumental analysis and specialized bio-analytical research? Do you enjoy a challenging job within a clinical laboratory with a wide variety of techniques and applications? Then you are the Research Fellow we are looking for.

Project description

The aim of the project is to correlate the concentrations of biomarkers to identify deficiencies in micronutrients, like vitamins and trace elements in critical ill patients. The PhD study is composed of three intertwined activities. First, to deploy high-resolution LC-MS and ICP-MS methods for the measurement of the concentrations of metabolites and micronutrients in relevant body compartments. Second, to validate the developed methods on clinical samples obtained from the ICU of the Amsterdam UMC. Samples will be collected during a secondment at the Amsterdam UMC. Third, the PhD student will work on the commercialization of the developed methods during another secondment in collaboration with the company Diagnotix located in Appingedam

Your main tasks and responsibilities in this project are:

• Develop methods for intracellular measurements of micronutrients
• Validate the developed methods on clinical samples obtained from the ICU
• Commercialization of developed assays

Your working environment

The research fellow will work in a nationally operating laboratory that has close ties with the top clinical hospital Reinier de Graaf. This means you will have opportunities for continuous developmont. At the Clinical Chemistry department of the RHMDC Delft, a range of analyses, including vitamins, hormones, and micronutrients, are performed using a wide variety of techniques. In addition to these routine tasks, we are always looking for new tests to implement, are innovators in the area of analyses techniques, robotizing and sample preparation and processing stept. We are involved and coordinate research projects both internal and in collaboration with other research institutes. You will work in a team that consists of 12 technicians, a senior scientist and a laboratory manager. The functional management of the team is carried out by two clinical chemists.

The research fellow will be supervised by Lennard Dekker, senior scientist and Linda IJsselstijn, clinical chemist. External supervision in this project comes from Angelique de Man, intensivist at Amsterdam UMC. Two six months secondments are part of the project, one at Amsterdam UMC and one at Diagnotix in Appingedam.

The BIO-MICRO project

Link to bio-micro project

In addition to your local PhD training, you will participate in a comprehensive and attractive educational programme specifically designed for the 13 Research Fellows within the BIO-MICRO consortium. The BIO-MICRO training programme offers a blended learning approach that combines monthly interactive live online sessions (60-90 minutes) with in-person workshops. The online curriculum covers essential topics in clinical research, including epidemiology, biostatistics, observational and clinical trial design, statistical computing and scientific writing. In addition, four intensive three-day in-person workshops are dedicated to the development of both academic and transferable skills. In addition, all fellows will carry out 12 months of secondments and will be enabled to participate in relevant international scientific conferences. Together, this structured training programme is designed to optimally prepare you for a succesful career as Analytical (Bio-) Chemistry expert.