Postdoc Parkinson’s disease; PD - biomarker discovery

Overview

As Postdoc researcher, you will contribute to the identification of novel blood biomarkers for early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease using lipidomics and proteomics techniques.

Parkinson’s disease is a devastating brain disease, which is fast‑growing and currently uncurable. Parkinson's disease is characterized by neuronal inclusions, named Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites, containing aggregated lipids and proteins. The protein alpha‑synuclein plays a central role in the pathogenesis of both Parkinson's, as it is the primary protein constituent of Lewy bodies.

Early and accurate identification of Parkinson's is crucial for tailoring therapeutic strategies (for example, for patient recruitment in clinical trials) and offering better prognostic insights to patients and their families. However, to date, no reliable, clinically applicable biomarkers have been established for Parkinson's.

Abnormalities in vesicle trafficking and lipid metabolism are common features of neurodegenerative brain diseases (NDs), including Parkinson's disease. It is unclear whether disturbed vesicle trafficking and lipid metabolism is a cause or consequence, or both, of alpha‑synuclein aggregation. Since neuronal health, synaptic function, and protein aggregation all heavily rely on proper membrane function and lipid metabolism, we will study if disease‑associated alterations in vesicular trafficking and lipid metabolism could be the root of neurodegeneration in Parkinson's.

• You will select and process plasma samples for isolation of extracellular vesicles and subsequent lipidomics and proteomics analysis.
• You will perform the targeted and untargeted lipidomics analysis in close collaboration with the Amsterdam UMC core facility.
• You will set up novel biochemical assays for identified candidate biomarkers.
• You will contribute to the integration of the proteomics (OLINK and mass spectrometry), lipidomics and genomics datasets of the included cohort.
• You will be involved in biobanking and ethics approval for biomarker studies.

• You have a recent PhD degree in Biomedical Science, Molecular/Cellular Biology, Neuroscience, or a related field with a keen interest in molecular and cellular mechanisms of neurodegenerative disorders.
• Programming skills and experience with proteomic or lipidomic analysis is required.
• Experience with data‑analysis with R is required.
• You are highly motivated, creative and willing to work with human blood samples and large‑omics datasets.
• Within this project most communication will be in English, so fluency in English and excellent communication and organizational skills are essential.
• You are communicative, well organized, independent and willing to supervise PhD and MSc students.
• A flying start to your career in scientific research.
• Plenty of room for your drive to shape tomorrow's healthcare.
• Working on large‑scale and in‑house research, with motivated colleagues from all over the world.

• You will be employed by Amsterdam UMC Research BV.
• A contract for 12 months, with the intention to extend for the duration of the project.
• Salary scale 10: € 3.598 to € 5.669 gross based on full‑time employment (depending on education and experience) and a year‑end bonus of 8.3%
  Calculate your net salary here
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• Holiday hours: 190.4 per year for full‑time and a possibility to save additional hours.
• Pension accrual with BeFrank, a modern, comprehensible and fairly priced pension.
• For >7 km each way, 100% reimbursement for public transport travel costs and, for private transport, €0.18 per km up to a maximum of 40 km each way.
• Do you prefer walking or cycling? Take advantage of our good bike scheme. Moreover, you will receive a reimbursement of €0.18 per km.
• Watch this video with more information about joining Amsterdam UMC Research BV.

As postdoc, you will work in the section Clinical Neuroanatomy and Biobanking (CNAB) at the department of Anatomy and Neurosciences, Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc. Our mission is to unravel cellular disease mechanisms in Parkinson's and related disorders in order to develop early diagnostics tools and identify drug targets for novel treatment…