Master Thesis: Development of high content screening applications for the zebrafish model system.

We are an interdisciplinary working group within the newly funded Accelerator lab (ACL) at
Innovation Management (IMA). ACL serves as an interdisciplinary platform for novel and
innovative projects originating from all scientific disciplines. Within ACL, the work group of
Dr Urban Liebel (http://liebel-lab.org) develops methodologies and technologies for high
content screening research projects covering all aspects of modern screening pipelines:
assay development, laboratory automation, automated intelligent microscopes, data
handling, image analysis and web-based collaboration platforms. The lab has close
collaborations to several institutes on KIT campus and external research laboratories.
We offer the conduction of a master thesis within a collaborative research project with Dr
Jens Westhoff (University Hospital, Heidelberg). You will conduct interdisciplinary research
together with an interdisciplinary team consisting of biologists, physicians, engineers and
computer scientists.


Topic
Disease or drug induced kidney injury poses an enormous medical and clinical problem. The
investigation of the mechanisms of damaging as well as their prevention requires the
functional testing of hypothesis in appropriate model systems. In contrast to established
animal models, the zebrafish is readily accessible to large scale analysis due to its several
experimental properties. Therefore, the aim of this project is to establish and develop an
automated assay for the analysis of kidney function, which will be applicable in subsequent
high content screening experiments.
This includes the establishment of animal models using microinjection, the chemical or
genetic injury of kidneys, the development of a protocol for data acquisition using
automated microscopy and the analysis of data using image processing techniques. Utilized
methods include handling and micromanipulation of adult and larval zebrafish, manual and
automatic fluorescence microscopy and programming of standard image analysis software
tools

Qualification
We are looking for highly motivated students with a background in natural sciences or
engineering. Experience in zebrafish handling, microscopy and/or image analysis is
advantageous but not required.


Jens Westhoff
jens.westhoff@med.uni-heidelberg.de
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Accelerator Lab) / Children's Hospital, University of Heidelberg
Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen / Heidelberg

Ansprechpartner: Jens Westhoff, jens.westhoff@med.uni-heidelberg.de / Dr. Jochen Gehrig, jochen.gehrig@kit.edu