PhD fellowship in comparative peptidomics and immunoinformatics

We are offering a PhD fellowship in comparative peptidomics and immunoinformatics commencing 1 February 2025 or after agreement.

Our group and research
The PhD project is conducted as a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences (IKV), Denmark and The Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Department of Health Technology, Denmark.  In addition, the project will be conducted in close collaboration with researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden and University of Dundee, Scotland. 

The project is funded by the Danish Research Council.

Project description

The objective of the PhD is to develop and validate immunopeptidomic methods for canine MHC class I/II presented antigen discovery, develop in-silico models for dog leukocyte antigen (DLA) presentation as well as to characterize presented antigens in dogs presenting with spontaneously resolving tumors.

The overall aim is to advance tools for immunotherapeutic evaluation in dogs with the view that this can benefit dogs as well as improve the translation of research between dogs and humans. A secondary view is to understand the mechanism behind self-resolving canine tumors and to evaluate if this mechanism can be explored for future strategic immunotherapy development across species.

Principal supervisor

Principal supervisor is Assoc. professor Maja L. Arendt, Dept. of Veterinary Clinical Sciences

[email protected]

Principal co-supervisor Professor Morten Nielsen Technical University of Denmark (DTU),Department of Health Technology,

Start:             1 February 2025 or after agreement

Duration:      3 years as a PhD student

Job description
Your key tasks as a PhD student at SUND are:

• Carrying through an independent research project under supervision.

• Completing PhD courses or other equivalent education corresponding to approximately 30 ECTS points.
• Participating in active research environments including a stay at another research team.
• Obtaining experience with teaching or other types of dissemination related to your PhD project
• Teaching and disseminating your knowledge.
• Writing a PhD thesis on the grounds of your project

Key criteria for the assessment of applicants
Applicants must have a master’s degree in a relevant field such as data science, computational science, genetics, cell biology. Please note that the master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (two years).

Other important criteria are:

• Fluency in English (requirement)
• Computational skills for working with large scale datasets.
• Experience with working in the Linux/Unix computation environment is a plus
• Experience in laboratory work (preferred but not required) such as working with cell lines, performing western blots, immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry.

Place of employment

The place of employment is at the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in dynamic and international research environment. Our research facilities include modern laboratories and equipment.

Terms of employment
The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week.

The position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of 3 years. Start date 1 February 2025 or after agreement.

The employment is conditioned upon the applicant’s success­ful enrolment as a PhD student at the Graduate School at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project formulated by the applicant.

The PhD study must be completed in accordance with The Ministerial Order on the PhD programme (2013) and the Faculty’s rules on achieving the degree.

Salary, pension and terms of employment are in accordance with the agree­ment between the Ministry of Taxation and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State. Depending on seniority, the monthly salary starts at approximately 30,700 DKK/Roughly 4,100 EUR (April 2024 level) plus pension.

Questions
For specific information about the PhD fellowship, please contact the principal supervisor.

General information about PhD studies at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences is available at the Graduate School’s website: https://healthsciences.ku.dk/phd/guidelines/

Application procedure
Your application must be submitted electronically by clicking ‘Apply now’ below. The application must include the following documents in PDF format: 

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page)

2. CV incl. education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position

3. Certified copy of original Master of Science diploma and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in other language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted. As a prerequisite for a PhD fellowship employment, your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree. We encourage you to read more in the assessment database: https://ufm.dk/en/education/recognition-and-transparency/find-assessments/assessment-database. Please note that we might ask you to obtain an assessment of your education performed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science

4. Publication list (if possible)

Application deadline:  Sunday 3 November 2024, 23.59pm CET

We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process
After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor.

The assessor makes a non-prioritized assessment of the academic qualifications and experience with respect to the above-mentioned area of research, techniques, skills and other requirements listed in the advertisement.

Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.

You find information about the recruitment process at: http://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

The applicants will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

Interviews are expected to be held in week 50 and 51.

The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.