4 years As PhD candidate you will investigate the genomic information of patients with a severe bleeding tendency without a diagnosis. Will you join our team?

Under normal physiological conditions there is a delicate balance in blood constituents which get activated to form a clot as a response to vessel injury (hemostasis), and at the same time orchestrate clot removal when vessel damage has been repaired (fibrinolysis). Disturbances in this balance of pro- and anticoagulant blood constituents lead to a bleeding tendency or pathological clot formation (thrombosis).

With the current screening and confirmatory laboratory tests some disturbances in hemostasis will remain undetected. While sometimes a clear genetic trait can be observed in families, analysis of whole exome sequencing (WES) of 159 hemostasis-related genes identified a cause in only 20% of the patients. Consequently, 80% of those patients remained without a definitive diagnosis. Identification of yet unknown contributors to disturbances of hemostasis are needed to establish a more personalized treatment and limit complications.

This is where you come in! In this PhD research project, you will investigate the genomic information of patients with a severe bleeding tendency without a diagnosis. Data already generated for diagnostic purposes or studies will be analyzed in depth, but also further experiments on the genome and/or proteome will be performed to elucidate underlying mechanisms of the bleeding tendencies. In addition, when diagnosis was already confirmed, correlations between specific genetic variants and the bleeding tendencies of the patients will be investigated.

Tasks and responsibilities

• The PhD candidate contributes to the development of new knowledge within the context of the department’s research program.
• Designs and performs scientific research.
• Writes scientific publications and presents findings at scientific meetings.
• Works in a team with clinical and non-clinical PhD students and scientists.
• Discusses, plans and performs research in a stimulating environment.
• Works in a highly international research group.

Working at Radboud university medical center means that you are ahead of the curve and working together on the healthcare of the future. And there is more. Our secondary terms of employment are impressive. These are fully tailored to you thanks to our Employment Conditions Selection Model. At Radboud university medical center, you will be given trust, and you will take the responsibility to handle everything together. We provide annual courses, both professional and personal.

• In addition to your monthly salary and an annual vacation allowance of 8%, you will receive an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%.
• If you work irregular hours, you will receive an allowance.
• As a full-time employee (36 hours per week), you are entitled to approximately 168 vacation hours (over 23 days) per year.
• Radboud university medical center pays 70% of the pension premium. You pay the rest of the premium with your gross salary.
• You get a discount on health insurance as well: you can take advantage of two group health insurance plans. UMC Zorgverzekering and CZ collectief.

In addition to our terms of employment, we also offer employees various other attractive facilities, such as childcare and sports facilities. Want to learn more? Take a look at the Cao UMC. The research project will be conducted in the Thrombosis and Hemostasis Division of the Laboratory of Hematology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Within the Laboratory of Hematology, specialist diagnostics and research is carried out in the field of hemato-oncology and coagulation. For both research and patient care, there is close coordination and collaboration with the departments of Hematology, Pediatrics, Genetics and the Hemophilia Treatment Center Nijmegen-Eindhoven-Maastricht.

Research Institutes
At the moment there are more than 1,300 PhD candidates at our medical hospital. This number includes PhD candidates on our pay roll as well as external candidates (those employed somewhere else but researching on our premises).

• Radboud Institute for Health Sciences: ± 700
• Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences: ± 400
• Donders Center for Medical Neurosciences: ± 200

Read what it is like to do a PhD at the Radboud University Medical Center.

Radboudumc
Radboud university medical center is a university medical center for patient care, scientific research, and education in Nijmegen. Radboud university medical center strives to be at the forefront of shaping the healthcare of the future. We do this in a person-centered and innovative way, and in close collaboration with our network. We want to have a significant impact on healthcare. We want to improve with each passing day, continuously working towards better healthcare, research, and education. And gaining a better understanding of how diseases arise and how we can prevent, treat, and cure them, day in and day out. This way, every patient always receives the best healthcare, now and in the future. Because that is why we do what we do.

Read more about our strategy and what working at Radboud university medical center means. Our colleagues would be happy to tell you about it. #weareradboudumc For this project, we are looking for an ambitious PhD candidate. This four-year project should culminate in a PhD thesis. The PhD candidate will participate in the RIMLS Graduate School. You have the ambition and enthusiasm to succeed in academic and translational research. You are highly motivated to work in an interdisciplinary environment at the cutting edge of science and have well-developed social skills directed to work in a team, excellent interpersonal and communicative skills.

Furthermore:

• Masters degree in (medical) biology, biomedical sciences, molecular life sciences or similar.
• Experience in management of genomic data (WES, WGS, sequencing data) is preferred.
• Experience in hemostasis is preferred.
• Experience in molecular techniques including cloning, transfection and transduction is preferred.

All additional information about the vacancy can be obtained from Dr. Daniëlle Meijer, head of the Thrombosis and Hemostasis Division. Use the Apply button to submit your application.