PHD PROGRAMME IN BIOMOLECULAR SCIENCES

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The PhD Program in Biomolecular Sciences of the Centre for Integrative Biology (CIBIO), University of Trento (Italy), announces the call for 10 PhD student scholarships beginning November 1st, 2015.
6 scholarships funded by the University of Trento for general projects. The selected candidates will undergo a lab rotation in the Cibio labs.

Directed scholarship:

  • n. 1 scholarship funded by CIBIO – Centre for Integrative Biology to be carried out at the Armenise-Harvard laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics and directed to the topic: “In vitro and in vivo characterization of prostate cancer secretome and its roles in tumour progression and androgen deprivation resistance”. Principal investigator: dr. Andrea Lunardi http://web.unitn.it/en/cibio/38106/armenise-harvard-laboratory-of-cancer-biology-genetics

University of Trento: the institutional video

Scholarships on specific research topics:

  • 1 scholarship funded by The Microsoft Research – University of Trento Centre for Computational and Systems Biology (COSBI), that requires specific competence assessed during the oral examination and reserved for the topic: “Modeling of human neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases from multi-source data”. In this project the candidate will build algorithmic and network based model of the molecular events associated with neurodegenerative diseases pathophysiological process, including the potential association with metabolic disorders, relying on experimental data and public domain data. This study will help in understanding the molecular pathways altered in the disease and investigating the role of metabolic alteration in disease development and progression. The design and realization of the study will be done at COSBI (see http://www.cosbi.eu). Preferred skills: a master’s degree in Bioinformatics, Systems Biology or closely related disciplines with knowledge in data manipulation procedures is preferred. Some experience in neuroscience will be a plus. Principal investigator: Prof. Corrado Priami
  • n. 1 scholarship funded by CIBIO – Centre for Integrative Biology, that requires specific competence assessed during the oral examination and which project will be carried out at the Neurodegenerative Diseases andTranscriptional Neurobiology laboratories. Scholarship is reserved for the topic: “The impact of chloride signaling dysregulation in neurodegeneration”. Neurodegenerative diseases, are characterized by accumulation of toxic proteins into aggregates. Proteins acquire their biologically active and thermodynamically stable native conformation through a sequence of structural rearrangements and are sensitive to micro-environment. Changes in the pH and ion composition of intracellular space may result in aggregation. Altered chloride homeostasis has been observed in neurological disorders and genetic mutations impairing Cl transport are responsible for epilepsy, neuropatic pain, and Alzheimer’s disease. Small changes in chloride concentration can have big impact on the transmembrane gradients, membrane currents and potential. In this project, we will test the hypothesis that altered [Cl] causes neurodegeneration through altered protein folding. To test our hypothesis, we will pursue these specific aims:
  • To characterize the effect of unbalanced Cl concentration on protein misfolding and aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases.
  • To determine the impact of altered Cl metabolism on neurotoxicity.
  • To establish alterations of Cl homeostasis in living animals.
  • Expertise in molecular and cellular biology along with skills in gel electrophoresis and protein immunoprecipitation are requested, along with an excellent knowledge of neurodegenerative diseases. The ability to use the fluorescent and confocal microscope is a plus. The optimal candidate should be proficient in English.
    Principal investigators:
    dr. Maria Pennuto http://web.unitn.it/en/cibio/31509/laboratory-of-neurodegenerative-diseases
    dr. Manuela Basso http://web.unitn.it/en/cibio/32974/laboratory-of-transcriptional-neurobiology
  • n. 1 scholarship that requires specific competence assessed during the oral examination, funded by Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), and reserved for the topic: “Cloud computing bioinformatics solutions for predictive analytics of big omics data in pharmacogenomics”. The research activity will take place at the Predictive Models for Biomedicine & Environment Lab (FBK/MPBA  http://mpba.fbk.eu/en/home), Complex Data Analytics Research Line of FBK, possibly in collaboration with international pharmacogenomics companies. Skills requested: machine learning for biomolecular profiling, bioinformatics for functional genomics (microarray or NGS) and solutions for developing bioinformatics pipelines in HPC or cloud infrastructures. Previous experience of collaboration with international research labs will be positively considered.
    Principal investigator: dr. Cesare Furlanello
  • The Academic year starts November 1, 2015.
Announcement of selection: Rector's Decree n. 311 of 18.05.2015, published in this webpage on May 22, 2014 – available in the “Download Box”*
*please note that only the Italian version of the call is legally binding, the English version is provided for information only.
  • Candidates are recommended to complete the online application well in advance before the deadline, in order to avoid possible technical problems or overcharge of the connection and/or of the application systems.

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The PhD Program in Biomolecular Sciences of the Centre for Integrative Biology (CIBIO), University of Trento (Italy), announces the call for 10 PhD student scholarships beginning November 1st, 2015. 6 scholarships funded by the University of Trento for general projects. The selected candidates will undergo a lab rotation in the Cibio labs.