A PhD student position in ovarian cancer research at University of Turku
A doctoral student position is open in the ovarian cancer research group at the Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku, Finland. The research group focuses on translational cancer research on high-grade serous ovarian cancer.
We are looking for an enthusiastic, highly motivated person to study treatment resistance mechanisms, markers for resistance prediction and drugable targets for personalized ovarian cancer treatment. Survival of the ovarian cancer patients is very poor due to typical late diagnosis and development of treatment resistance. We have recently identified a set of expression markers that predicts ovarian cancer patient survival (Chen, Huhtinen, et al 2015 Cancer Res) and identified potential mechanisms leading to platinum resistance, which works as a background for the PhD project.
This project focuses on evaluating the role of the prognostic markers in drug resistance and development of new tools for diagnosis and treatment of the patients. The work is a part of ongoing multidisciplinary research collaboration between clinical, systems biology and laboratory researchers and is connected to EU H2020 Hercules project. We use diverse and modern laboratory methods, including cell free DNA analysis, CrispR-Cas gene knockdown, Chip-Seq and next generation sequencing, as well as both clinical samples and patient derived primary cell lines. The project will be performed in the laboratory of Professor Olli Carpén at the Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland, under supervision of docent Kaisa Huhtinen. The position will start as soon as possible with 3 months trial period.
Candidate requirements: - MSc in biosciences e.g. molecular biology, biochemistry or health biosciences (already obtained or soon-to-be) or medical student at biomedical research track - Highly motivated person with strong interest in translational cancer research - Ability to strive for the progress of the project - Good skills in both oral and written English and in team-working
To apply, please send the following documents as a SINGLE PDF DOCUMENT to kaisa.huhtinen(at)utu.fi: motivation letter (incl. statement of research interest and skills relevant for the position), CV, list of publications, and recommendation letters or contact information of the references. The deadline for the application is 30th of November 2016. Only individuals invited to an interview will be contacted.
Contact information: Kaisa Huhtinen PhD, Docent in Cancer Biology Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine Institute of Biomedicine Tykistökatu 6B (Biocity) 20014 University of Turku Mobile: +358 405828506 E-mail: kaisa.huhtinen[at]utu.fi