Doctoral Candidate position HORIZON-MSCA-Doctoral Network LipidBRIGHT

Project

An Innovative Doctoral Network  Are you fascinated by how lipids contribute to human disease? Step into the world of lipid research with the European doctoral network LipidBRIGHT to uncover how lipid signalling and metabolism drive disease—and innovate future therapies. Lipids are of vital importance through interaction in cell membranes, as energy source and in cellular signalling and function. As such, they also play decisive roles in cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, cancer and chronic inflammatory disease. These diseases affect 33%, 60%, 10% and 33% of Europeans, and are responsible for >

60% of global deaths. The European Doctoral Network LipidBRIGHT combines scientists, clinicians, companies and stakeholder organisations with expertise in these disease fields. By integrating expertise in lipids from the clinical, biomedical, technological and data science field across disease borders and by transferring complementary knowledge and technology, LipidBRIGHT aims to speed up innovations towards improved disease prevention, diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. LipidBRIGHT will train 11 scientists in a close cooperation between academia, SMEs and industry partners. Key objectives are to provide :

• Excellent scientific training on interdisciplinary level, covering liquid biochemistry and pathophysiology as well as clinical application.
• Excellent complementary skills in personal and career development as well as business training required to extend beyond scientific research.
• Exposure to both academic and non-academic environments, required to build bridges between researchers and entrepreneurs and support the future translation of research findings in innovative products and services.

LipidBRIGHT builds on available patient cohorts, advanced technologies and established cooperations and strives to synergistically improve structural training on European level. LipidBRIGHT will nurture the development of young, broadly-trained scientists able to successfully bridge clinical with basic research as well as academia and industry, which is a cornerstone in effectively combatting complex diseases as cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, cancer and chronic inflammatory disease. One PhD position  is available at the Department of Oncology, Laboratory of Lipid Metabolism and Cancer, at KU Leuven. The project has a duration of 36-months.  Supervisor : Prof. Dr. Johannes Swinnen.

Title : Development of lipid biomarkers for anti-lipogenic cancer therapy in patients.

The doctoral candidate will focus on developing lipid-based biomarkers to improve anti-lipogenic cancer therapies. Cancer progression and treatment response are strongly influenced by lipid metabolism, but patient stratification remains challenging due to tumor heterogeneity and the lack of reliable markers. The research will involve advanced analysis of blood tumor samples from prostate cancer patients enrolled in clinical trials combining lipogenesis inhibitors and dietary interventions. Using cutting-edge lipidomics technologies the project aims to identify predictive lipid signatures, link them to biological and clinical outcomes, and integrate AI-driven analysis to create cost-effective prognostic tools validated in independent cohorts.

Profile

Eligibility criteria :

According to the EU rules for the EU-Doctoral Network projects, the recruited researchers must comply with the following conditions :

Research Field / Requirements :

Offer

The DC will receive a 36-month scholarship to cover her / his living costs. The gross amount of the doctoral scholarship is based on a living allowance that is dependent on a country correction coefficient which takes into account the cost of living in the country of the recruiting institution.The gross amount of the doctoral scholarship (tax-free) will be approximately 3.055,61 per month if the candidate is single with no dependent family members. It will be higher if the candidate has a registered partner without income and / or dependent child(ren); it will be lower if the candidate has a registered partner with income.

The cost of all training activities, including all expenses related to travel and accommodation to attend annual meetings and other network organized events will be paid by the network through the Horizon Europe MSCA-DN grant. DCs will have access to a dedicated workspace and to research facilities. Bench / consumables costs to execute the research project will be covered by the institutions.

Interested?

How to apply?

Interested candidates can apply by submitting the following documents :