SCIENCE-JOBS-DE

The regulation of the micro environmental stress sensor PHD3 in tumor growth and progression

The Institute of Neuropathology at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, Director Prof. Till Acker, is inviting applications for a PhD student position on:
"The regulation of the micro environmental stress sensor PHD3 in tumor growth and progression"

The positions is available immediately.

Your profile:
We are looking for enthusiastic and highly motivated applicants holding, or about to obtain an MSc degree, diploma or equivalent. The applicants should possess a strong interest in cancer research, molecular and cell biology, the ability to integrate in an international team, learn about new fields and establish new experimental techniques. Prior experience with cell culture or tumor biology related assays will be an advantage.

Topic:
Our group has a long-standing interest in the role of microenvironmental factors, particularly hypoxia, HIFs and oxygen sensors of the PHD family, in the regulation of tumor progression and key hallmarks of cancer including angiogenesis, invasion, metastasis, metabolism self-renewal and differentiation. We are particularly interested in understanding how stress signals from the tumor microenvironment are sensed and integrated in order to promote tumor growth and progression.
We have recently shown that the microenvironmental stress sensor PHD3 acts as tumor suppressor in glioblastoma by curtailing EGFR activity through the stimulation of EGFR internalization. Loss of PHD3 expression, abrogates hypoxia-induced growth inhibition and strongly potentiates EGFR signaling (Nature Commun 2014, 5:5577; Nature Commun 2014, 5:5582). Thus, the control of PHD3 levels and activity is a crucial step in tumor progression to attain growth signal autonomy and become refractory to growth inhibitory signals. However, very little is known about the mechanisms that control PHD3 expression and function. The proposed project will aim to identify cellular factors that regulate PHD3 levels or activity, by a) identifying PHD3 interacting partners under different microenvironmental conditions and  b) carrying out a large-scale loss-of-function screen. Key validated hits from these analyses will be further investigated to elucidate their function in cancer cell pathophysio!
 logy in d
 ifferent tumor models.

Methoden:
We use a wide spectrum of methods: cloning, cell culture, biochemistry, qRT-PCR, FACS, ELISA, cell-based assays (proliferation, apoptosis, migration, 3D invasion, stem cell isolation and cultivation etc.), shRNA/siRNA screens, proteomics, transactivation assays, virally-based gene delivery and RNAi or CRISPR/Cas9-mediated silencing, next-generation sequencing, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, light, epifluorescence and confocal microscopy, image analysis, animal models and in vivo tumor models.
Our international team offers an open, supportive, dynamic and motivating academic environment with excellent training opportunities. We have won a number of external research grants and are involved in several national and international collaborative projects. We offer our graduate students the opportunity to join the International Giessen Graduate Centre for the Life Sciences (GGL, http://www.uni-giessen.de/cms/fbz/zentren/ggl) and the PhD program of the Medical Faculty.


Homepage: http://www.ukgm.de/ugm_2/deu/ugi_npa/5424.html

Please send your applications, including a CV, certificates and references by email to Dr. Boyan Garvalov
Email: Boyan.Garvalov at patho.med.uni-giessen.de;
Please cite reference ID “DrArbeit 2015-07”.