PhD position combining genetics, bioinformatics and neurobiology to uncover molecular mechanisms in ALS!

A complete 4 year PhD focusing on the genetic factors and molecular mechanisms that underly a terminal neurodegenerative disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Genetics plays a key role in ALS, both in determining who gets the disease and how severely the disease progresses within an individual patient. Work by the project supervisors has contributed to several impactful discoveries of ALS genes. However, for most ALS patients, the underlying causal risk factors have not yet been identified and we believe that new approaches are needed to resolve this.

Within this project, you will work to apply new bioinformatic methods to the largest collection of genetics data from ALS patients in the world. These bioinformatic methods will span a range of data mining techniques, machine learning (supervised/unsupervised), network analyses and pathway analyses. You will also work to incorporate your results within new online tools to help support future work by other ALS research groups. Importantly, this project strongly emphasizes a capacity to think deeply about what your results really mean at a biological level, and to use genetic findings to generate new hypotheses that the project will test by analyzing separate biological readouts from patients and laboratory models.

We offer a temporary position (1.0 FTE) for one year, starting Jan 1, 2023. Upon a positive performance, the appointment will be extended for three further years.