Research fellowship

Organisation/Company

Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde da Universidade do Porto (i3S)

Research Field

Biological sciences » Biology

Researcher Profile

Established Researcher (R3)

Positions

Master Positions

Country

Portugal

Application Deadline

26 Mar 2025 - 00:00 (Europe/Lisbon)

Type of Contract

Other

Type of Contract Extra Information

Research fellowship

Job Status

Full-time

Hours Per Week

35

Offer Starting Date

13 Mar 2025

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by a EU programme

Reference Number

Fellow_BI/Proj2024/i3S/13032603/2025

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

i3s – Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (hereinafter i3) is opening a call to award a grant for the development of R&D activities by Master´s enrolled in non-academic degree courses integrated into the educational project of a higher education institution, within the project “Integrating organ-on-chip technology with human iPSCs to unravel the genesis of hereditary diffuse gastric cancer” - HDCHIP (Refª NCH2024005), funded by national funds through the National Cancer Hub-PT (NCH-PT), coordinated by AICIB and DGS through the National Program for Oncological Diseases (PNDO).

Host Institution: i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Porto, Portugal.

Scientific Area: Biotechnology/Biomedicine.

Project Title: “Integrating organ-on-chip technology with human iPSCs to unravel the genesis of hereditary diffuse gastric cancer”.

Workplan: Every year, nearly 50.000 people are diagnosed with Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer (HDGC) worldwide. HDGC, caused by CDH1 loss of function, is a deadly cancer syndrome predisposing affected individuals to a highly aggressive form of diffuse gastric cancer and/or lobular breast cancer. The only effective therapeutic approach available is risk-reducing surgery of stomach and breasts, prior to disease clinical presentation. Indeed, most variant CDH1 carriers opt for this radical surgical approach. The growing number of prophylactic surgeries treat disease, but hamper the study of disease initiation. To overcome the lack of patients’ target organs to study biomarkers of disease initiation, we developed a biomimetic HDGC model combining organ-on-a-chip technology with HDGC patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells. This in vitro platform will act as an avatar of HDGC, in which loss of function of the remaining functional CDH1 allele will be triggered, to promote disease initiation. Here, we propose using this model to identify a gastric cancer initiation molecular signature, able to differentiate carriers with asymptomatic invasive cancer lesions from those bearing pre-malignant or no lesions, and validate it in a translational clinical setting. Disease initiation biomarkers identified hold the potential of informing on the need and urgency of risk-reducing surgery and potentially be used in the future to develop a point-of-care device to better manage HDGC patients.

This is a pioneer project to study early diagnosis and treatment in HDGC. The project’s outcome is expected to have a significant impact in patient management and in reducing treatment-related morbidity, contributing to a more personalized approach.

Functions: 

The grant holder will play a central role in the project and will be an integral member of the team, operating in collaboration with the principal investigator and students assigned to the project. The main function of the grantee will be to coordinate the interaction with the clinical teams involved in the project, scheduling the collection and processing of clinical material. It should also intersperse these tasks with the manufacture and manipulation of microfluidic chips and organ-on-chip platforms. In addition, the grantee is expected to make a careful and detailed analysis of the results resulting from the research.

Admission Requirements:

Mandatory:

• We are looking for a candidate holding a Master's Degree in Biology or similar areas;
• Candidates must also be enrolled in a non-academic degree course integrated into the educational project of a higher education institution, at the time of the start of the contract;
• Experience in interacting with clinical teams and processing clinical samples;
• Biomarker search by proteomics/RNAseq analysis in secretomes;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English;

Preferential:

- Establishment and genetic manipulation of organoids and iPSCs;

- Proficiency in the manufacture and manipulation of microfluidic and Organ-on-Chip systems; - Experience in cell culture, including advanced 3D models;

- Experience in cellular and molecular biology techniques;

- Excellent organizational skills;

- Dynamism, reactivity and autonomy;

- Excellent synthesis skills (work protocols, technical reports and others management documents);

- Good teamwork skills;

- Ability to propose solutions to critical problems and issues that may arise during the project.

THE CANDIDATE'S INTENTION TO PURSUE DOCTORAL STUDIES IN THE THEME OF THE PROJECT WILL BE VALUED AND A WEIGHTING FACTOR FOR THE FINAL SELECTION.

Legislation and other applicable regulations: Research Fellowship Holder Statute enacted by Law no. 40/2004 of August 18th, as amended; FCT Research Grants Regulation, approved by way of Regulation nr. 950/2019, published in the II Series of DR of December 16th, 2019; i3S Research Grants Regulation.

Place: The research activites will be hosted at i3S, under the scientific coordination of Doctor Daniel Ferreira.

Length time: The duration of the fellowship is 5 months and 15 days, and the expected starting date is April 16th, 2025, upon availability of the financed funds.

Monthly maintenance stipend: €1.309,64, according to the values table of FCT, at Portugal (https://www.fct.pt/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Tabela_valores_SMM_2025.pdf ). The payments  will be made by bank transference. 

Research grants may also include other components, as the voluntary social insurance, under the terms of the Research Fellowship Holder Statute, article 10. 

Evaluation Criteria: 

The selection will be made by (A) curricular evaluation (50%), taking into account previous experience in the points described in the Admission Requirements, (B) Motivation letter (30%) and interview (C) (20%). The 2 best candidates may be called for an interview. Only candidates who have a classification higher than 70% in the cumulative of criteria (A) and (B) will be admitted to the interview. An evaluation will be made (on a scale of 1 to 100), followed by a ranking of the candidates based on the score obtained in the criteria defined above. 

Candidates who do not correctly fill in their application or do not meet the mandatory admission requirements are excluded from admission to this competition. In case of doubt, the jury may ask any candidate for additional documents to prove their statements.

Evaluation Pannel: President – Daniel Ferreira, PhD; members - Carla Oliveira, PhD, Ricardo Amorim, PhD; members substitutes - Sara Pereira, PhD, Celina São José, PhD.

Information and Publicity of Funding Granted: The results of the evaluation will be notified by email to all candidates. After notification, candidates have 10 working days to comment and, within that period, a complaint may be submitted by email to rh@i3s.up.pt .

Applications: The call will be open between March 13th, 2025 and March 26th, 2025. The applications must be submitted electronically at:

https://dozer.i3s.up.pt/applicationmanagement/#/addapplications/8de18f0e295ad86ebbaacf4a9f8ce27

The required documents for the application are: Certificate of Qualifications, Curriculum Vitae, letter of motivation, proof of enrollment in a non-academic degree course integrated into the educational project of a higher education institution, (proof of enrollment or a honor statement of capacity to enroll in the aforementioned course until the grant is contracted), and other documents, considered as relevant by the candidate.

Documents to be provided at the time of contracting: in addition to those mentioned in the previous point, it is necessary to present proof of enrollment in non-academic degree course integrated into the educational project of a higher education institution.

Full announcement at: https://dozer.i3s.up.pt/fileupload/downloadfile/viewpdfnewtab/4b93d651d…

Website

https://dozer.i3s.up.pt/applicationmanagement/#/addapplications/8de18f0e295ad86…

Research Field

Biological sciences » Biology

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Admission Requirements:

Mandatory:

• We are looking for a candidate holding a Master's Degree in Biology or similar areas;
• Candidates must also be enrolled in a non-academic degree course integrated into the educational project of a higher education institution, at the time of the start of the contract;
• Experience in interacting with clinical teams and processing clinical samples;
• Biomarker search by proteomics/RNAseq analysis in secretomes;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English;

Preferential:

- Establishment and genetic manipulation of organoids and iPSCs;

- Proficiency in the manufacture and manipulation of microfluidic and Organ-on-Chip systems; - Experience in cell culture, including advanced 3D models;

- Experience in cellular and molecular biology techniques;

- Excellent organizational skills;

- Dynamism, reactivity and autonomy;

- Excellent synthesis skills (work protocols, technical reports and others management documents);

- Good teamwork skills;

- Ability to propose solutions to critical problems and issues that may arise during the project.

THE CANDIDATE'S INTENTION TO PURSUE DOCTORAL STUDIES IN THE THEME OF THE PROJECT WILL BE VALUED AND A WEIGHTING FACTOR FOR THE FINAL SELECTION.

Website for additional job details

https://dozer.i3s.up.pt/fileupload/downloadfile/viewpdfnewtab/5251d1032bfe87732…

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

i3S

Country

Portugal

Geofield

City

Porto

Website

http://www.i3S.up.pt

Street

Rua Alfredo Allen 208

Postal Code

4200-135

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