PhD position in systems biology (Zampieri Lab)

The Department of Biomedicine is a joint effort between the University of Basel and the University Hospitals Basel. It unites basic and clinical scientists to advance our understanding of health and disease and to develop pioneering therapies benefiting the lives of patients in areas of unmet need.

With more than 70 research groups and 800 employees, the Department of Biomedicine is the largest department at the University. We are located in the heart of Basel at 6 different locations. Be part of our future!

The Zampieri group offers a PhD research opportunity in the context of systems pharmacology, computational biology and metabolic regulation. The mission of the group is to understand fundamental mechanisms regulating short- and long-term metabolic adaptation to genetic and chemical perturbations to find new and unconventional therapeutic strategies, ranging from antibacterial to anti-cancer drugs. To this end, we develop new ways to combine state-of-the-art technologies in metabolomics with mathematical modeling.

Your position

• Developing new strategies to combine high-throughput metabolomics with 3D cell culture models
• Perform large chemical and genetic studies in cancer cell lines derived spheroids
• Develop predictive model of drug response by comparing 2D to 3D cellular systems
• Testing and validating the relevance of such models in patient tumour specimens
• Support and preparation of scientific reports and journal articles



Your profile

• Master's degree in (Bio-)Physics, (Bio-)Engineering, Biological Sciences, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Systems Biology, Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics/Computational Biology, or related fields.
• Experience in designing and running experiments with 2D and 3D (organoids, spheroids) cell cultures in the laboratory.
• Experience in basic statistical approaches for the analysis of large datasets.
• Hands-on experience with key biochemical and molecular biological methods.
• Motivation to work in an international research environment.
• Experience with and/or motivation to learn systems biology approaches, high-throughput methodologies, analysis of single cell imaging data.
• Experience with programming language (e.g. Matlab, R or Python).
• Excellent communication skills.
• Any of the following will be a plus: Experience with mass spectrometry.
• Experience with the analysis of metabolomics data.
• Interest in mathematical modelling of metabolic and regulatory/signalling network.

We offer you

• You will have access to state-of-the-art research equipment in metabolomics, cell biology, time-lapse microscopy and single cell analysis.
• You will work in a dynamic and highly interdisciplinary team including computer scientists, experimentalists and clinicians.
• You will be involved in cross-disciplinary collaborations and have training opportunities to further develop and grow your scientific interests.
• Access to a large consortium of experts in different disciplines, such chemistry, engineering, clinics, computational biology and Micro-, Cell- and Immunobiology.
• Opportunity to work in close contact with other basic- and clinical-research groups at the Department of Biomedicine and the Biozentrum in Basel.
• Support from highly competent, experienced team members and potential to lead projects with a high degree of academic freedom.