PhD student and postdoctoral/senior scientist positions in Cell trafficking unit at Medicity Research laboratory, University of Turku, Finland 1-2 PhD student positions and 1-2 postdoctoral/senior scientist positions are open in the Cell trafficking unit led by Academy Professor, Academician Sirpa Jalkanen and Prof. Marko Salmi at the MediCity Research Laboratory, University of Turku (http://www.utu.fi/en/units/med/units/immunology/research/research%20groups/c... and http://www.aka.fi/en/about-us/media/press-releases/2015/sirpa-jalkanen-and-i...). The overall goal of the Cell trafficking unit is to elucidate the mechanisms that regulate cell trafficking in inflammation and cancer. Current projects are focusing on how endothelial molecules (VAP-1, CD73, CLEVER-1, PLVAP etc), originally discovered to be involved in leukocyte extravasation by the Unit, regulate leukocyte trafficking to lymphoid tissues and different cancers. New high-throughput screens for identification of novel molecules involved in leukocyte migration through the lymphatic vasculature and in macrophage polarization are also ongoing. All projects are highly translational in nature and offer good opportunities for therapeutic exploitation of the results.
The Cell trafficking unit, one of the national Centers of Excellence, is now looking for highly motivated and hard-working PhD students and postdoctoral fellows. The PhD student candidates should have a higher university degree completed (or nearly completed) with good grades in fields relevant for the position (e.g. Biology, Biochemistry, Health Biosciences, Molecular biology, Medicine). The candidates for postdoctoral fellow/senior scientist positions should have a PhD or MD/PhD degree with a prominent publication record. Previous working experience in biomedical disciplines, such as immunology, cancer biology, molecular biology, or developmental biology, with various lab techniques (e.g. bioimaging, experimental mouse models, high-throughput screens etc) is also beneficial. In addition, goods skills in English and team-work are highly valued. MediCity is a state-of art research laboratory of 100 scientists at the Medical Faculty in the University of Turku. It is in the middle of a compact multidisciplinary campus area. It has excellent core facilities, including Bio-imaging, NGS, proteomics, and animal facilities, in the same building (http://www.btk.fi/). The Biocity Turku umbrella organization and post-graduate schools (e.g. Turku Doctoral Programme of Molecular Medicine, http://www.utu.fi/en/units/med/studying/postgrad/doctoral/doctoralprogrammes... ) offers very high quality research training and frequent seminars by world-leading scientists. The applications (a single PDF-file) should include a CV, publication list and 1-page letter of motivation. Applications should be sent to Academy Professor, Academician Sirpa Jalkanen (sirpa.jalkanen@utu.fimailto:sirpa.jalkanen@utu.fi ) no later than 30.10.2015. Top candidates will be invited to an interview.
Selected recent papers: Pia Rantakari, Kaisa Auvinen, Norma Jäppinen, Maria Kapraali, Joona Valtonen, Marika Karikoski, Heidi Gerke, Imtiaz Iftakhar-E-Khuda, Johannes Keuschnigg, Eiji Umemoto, Kazuo Tohya, Masayuki Miyasaka, Kati Elima, Sirpa Jalkanen, Marko Salmi; The endothelial protein Plvap in lymphatics controls lymphocyte and antigen entry to lymph nodes. Nature Immunology (2015) 16(4):386-96. Marika Karikoski, Fumiko Marttila-Ichihara, Kati Elima, Pia Rantakari, Maija Hollmén, Tiina Kelkka, Heidi Gerke, Ville Huovinen, Heikki Irjala, Rikard Holmdahl, Marko Salmi and Sirpa Jalkanen; Clever-1/Stabilin-1 Controls Cancer Growth and Metastasis. Clin Cancer Res.(2014) (24):6452-64. Marko Salmi, Kati Elima, Marika Karikoski, Pia Rantakari, Sirpa Jalkanen; CD44 Binds to Macrophage Mannose Receptor on Lymphatic Endothelium and Supports Lymphocyte Migration via Afferent Lymphatics. Circ Res (2013) 112(12):1577-82