Descripción
About the position We invite applications for a PhD Research Fellow position in Computational Structural Biology is available at the Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, within the interdisciplinary research project DECODING ADDICTION – Unraveling Individual Variability to guide Prevention, part of the UiO Life Science Convergence Environment. Starting date as soon as possible. The fellowship periode for three yearsA fourth year may be considered, and it will involve 25 % of other career-promoting work. Other career-promoting work may consist of teaching, supervision, and/or research assistance. This is dependent upon the qualifications of the applicant and the current needs of the department. No one can be appointed for more than one PhD Research Fellowship period at the University of Oslo. Place of work is at the Department of Pharmacy in the new Life Science Building , Oslo. Job description Addiction is a growing global crisis, and understanding individual vulnerability is critical for prevention and treatment. The DECODING ADDICTION project investigates the role of the mu-opioid receptor (OPRM1/μOR) in addiction susceptibility by studying a naturally occurring mutation (R181C) discovered in the Norwegian popu-lation. This mutation abolishes opioid receptor signaling and offers unprecedented insights into how μ-opioid signaling shapes addiction risk. This PhD project (Work Package 4) aims to use advanced computational methods to elucidate the structural and functional consequences of the R181C mutation in the μ-opioid receptor. The PhD candidate will: generate high-resolution models of wild-type and R181C mutant μ-opioid receptor based on existing crystallographic data and perform molecular docking for ligand optimization perform extensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations (AMBER, NAMD, GROMACS) in fully hydrated lipid bilayer systems to replicate physiological conditions and assess receptor conformational changes conduct structu