Research Fellow (Post-Doctoral) position at Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland
14.11.2019Open position for a Research Fellow (Post-Doctoral) in the O’Driscoll Group at the School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences and Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute.
Our research group (the O’Driscoll group) at Trinity College Dublin has extensive experience in research of exosomes and other extracellular vesicles (collectively termed EVs). EVs are emerging as important players in cell-to-cell communication under physiological and pathological circumstances. Some studies have suggested significantly more EVs in cancer patients’ blood compared to healthy controls; other have not. We hypothesis that this conflict in observation may be due to EVs’ heterogenous nature. Here we will more comprehensively investigate this. In vitro and in vivo studies across several solid tumour types implicate EVs released from cancer cells as causally involved in invasion, angiogenesis, metastasis and drug-resistance. Previous attempts to block EV release, and so these consequences, have been hampered by the approaches used also affecting EV release from normal cells that may be important for physiological events. However, we have now established that the microenvironment of the tumour substantially contributes to EV release. This programme will thus investigate this, in efforts to prevent metastasis and drug-resistance. But not all EVs are bad! We have also successfully isolated EVs from normal mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with potential as drug/miRNA delivery vehicles. This will be further explored.
The Post-Doctoral Fellow appointed to this post will conduct cellular and molecular research related to this programme, assist with the day-to-day running of this project, assist with supervising the research of PhD students, assist with preparing timely reports for IRC and other appropriate forms of dissemination from this study. The candidate will hold a PhD in a pharmacology, bio-engineering, biotechnology, biochemistry, immunology, molecular biology, biotechnology or pharmacy.
More information at http://www.finbionet.fi/University_of_Dublin.pdf
Closing date: 12 Noon (Irish Standard Time), 28th November2019.