Descripción
PhD-Student (m/f/d) Join an interdisciplinary research project at the interface of neurobiology, RNA biology, and bioinformatics. The aim of this PhD project is to decipher the regulatory mechanisms underlying RNA dysregulation in response to environmental and viral stressors. Using innovative brain organoid models, you will apply computational and experimental approaches to investigate the effects of microplastics and/or HSV-1 infections on RNA regulation in models of Alzheimer's disease and healthy controls. The insights gained are expected to contribute to a better understanding of the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases. As part of this PhD project, you will employ state-of-the-art sequencing and analytical techniques to investigate how environmental factors and viral infections influence RNA regulation in the human brain. Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding the molecular mechanisms that may contribute to the onset and progression of neurodegenerative diseases. - Analyze alterations in RNA regulation in the human brain using single-cell transcriptomics and long-read RNA sequencing. - Investigate key RNA regulatory processes, including alternative splicing, RNA isoform usage, polyadenylation dynamics, and transposable element activity. - Explore the effects of HSV-1 infections and genetic risk factors on RNA isoform diversity and regulation. - Integrate and analyze transcriptomic and epitranscriptomic datasets to identify disease-relevant molecular mechanisms. - Compare data from human brain organoid models with datasets from Alzheimer’s disease patients to assess the disease relevance of the models. - Develop and apply bioinformatics approaches for the analysis of complex multi-omics datasets. - Present and discuss research findings within the team and at national and international scientific conferences. - Contribute to scientific publications in leading international peer-reviewed journals. - Opportunity to expand the proj