The applicant has:
1. A PhD (recently completed or soon to be obtained) linked to biology, medical sciences, pharmaceutical sciences or the like.
2. The applicant has experience in cell culture and animal handling and is certified to perform animal experiments.
3. Experience with cancer biology, immunotherapy and tumor microenvironment analysis is a plus.
4. Any experience with preclinical studies (therapeutic efficacy, biodistribution, sample collection...) is a plus.
5. Experience with therapeutic mRNA or pDNA is a plus.
6. Experience with generating and evaluating CAR-T or CAR-NK cells is a plus.
7. Any experience with biomimetics for encapsulation of nanocomplexes with biological membranes is a plus.
8. International applicants are a plus, but not a requirement.
9. Applicants must be enthusiastic, dynamic, reliable and accurate, willing to incorporate previously learned techniques into new approaches.
10. The applicant is a good team player, who likes to be closely supervised and who can also work independently.
11. Must have a great sense of responsibility and good organizational skills.
12. Applicants must be able to communicate well in English.
Main responsibilities:
13. The culture, evaluation and validation of (engineered) cell types (reporter or therapeutic cells (CAR-NK)).
14. The generation of biomimetic nanoparticles through engineering of cells with lentiviral vectors.
15. The setup and validation of different (syngeneic) tumor models, and in vivo follow-up of tumor growth and tumor microenvironment changes
16. The ex vivo analysis of tumor microenvironment changes through flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry and various techniques
17. The applicant will propose and design novel targets and/or methods for improving targeted delivery of their therapeutic agents
18. The applicant will contribute to teaching the techniques to PhD students and follow-up on different students.
The work to be performed is linked to the research group "NanoHealth and Optical Imaging" at the Faculty of Medicine (KU Leuven, Belgium). This research group is part of the Translational Cell and Tissue Research Unit and is further heading the Centre for Multimodal Oncology Research (C-More). The latter houses a wide range of non-invasive imaging modalities, which the applicant will join. Our team has an excellent international reputation in nanomedicine and optical imaging. We also often work together with other research groups at the KULeuven to assist them with imaging techniques. The field of nanomedicine is receiving increasing attention and has enormous potential for a plethora of pathological conditions, including cancer. One of the main advantages of nanomaterials is the ability to combine multiple modalities in one platform, allowing the nanomaterials to be used simultaneously for diagnostic and therapeutic applications and to use multiple therapeutic options simultaneously. The main bottlenecks hindering the full use of nanomaterials for biomedical purposes is the need for a higher level of selectivity in terms of targeted delivery of the nanomaterials to the target cells, along with the development of new, alternative therapeutic options. These topics are central to the research group where the main focus lies on combining cell biology and nanomedicine to define the optimal novel research tools for translational research. Funding is available to support the candidate, where the first year will be seen as an evaluation year. Upon a positive evaluation, the contract can be extended for another 2 years, or, depending on the specific conditions of the applicant, they can submit an application for an external fellowship for 3 years. For this we will guide the candidate in submitting the application. The applicant's knowledge and experience will grow with a multidisciplinary team at KULeuven and there will be ample opportunities to learn from and interact with experienced researchers in various associated research domains.