Postdoctoral Researcher in engineered extracellular vesicles

The Department of Laboratory Medicine consists of 6 divisions and is active in many areas of Laboratory Medicine. The department is involved in advanced basic scientific, clinical and epidemiological research. The department is one of the largest departments of education at Karolinska Institutet.



Division
The Department of Laboratory of Medicine, located in Huddinge Campus, is one of the Karolinska Institutet’s largest departments with 9 research divisions including the Clinical Research Centre (CRC), where the project will be carried out.

350 people are employed at the department, half of which are PhD-students. The Centre provides the facilities needed for cell- and molecular biology research and the possibility to perform research in vivo.

Our research efforts in EL Andaloussi´s lab focus on one of the greatest challenges facing modern therapeutics; delivery. Despite the unprecedented knowledge of diseases and their mechanisms due to advances in biomedical sciences; many promising therapeutic approaches are still clinically unavailable. This is simply because there is no efficient means of delivering these therapeutics to the right organ with the right dose. Such therapeutics include proteins for replacement therapy or antibodies for anti-inflammatory treatment as well as nucleic acids for gene therapy of diseases including muscular dystrophies and neurodegenerative disorders. We develop innovative drug delivery technologies that are able to carry protein and/or gene therapies to the target tissues safely and efficiently. We have developed a promising technology based on reprogramming exosomes, which are vesicles that are naturally used by cells to communicate, to carry therapeutic proteins and nucleic acids. We engineer exosomes with enhanced delivery and targeting capacities and screen our wide array of exosome designs in disease-relevant cellular and animal models. We are also developing methods for large-scale production and purification of such exosome therapeutics. Additionally, our lab develops methods for gene therapy based on modified cell-penetrating peptides that are efficient carriers of nucleic acids and proteins across biological barriers. We test our different technologies in models of inflammatory diseases as well as neurodegenerative and neuromuscular disorders. Our main aim is to one day unlock the potential of protein and gene therapy of such diseases by the development of novel and efficient delivery technologies.

Duties
The post doc project will mostly revolve around the development of bioengineered extracellular vesicles for delivery of RNA-based therapeutics.

Most of the research will be conducted utilizing cell lines and animal models. The first part of the work will involve engineering of therapeutically active exosomes with different RNA and protein species. This is achieved by cloning various genetic constructs that are introduced into producer cells and validated for expression in purified exosomes. The second part will involve testing these exosomes in normal and diseased mice (primarily EAE). 


Entry requirements and qualifications
Qualified to be employed as a postdoctor is one who has obtained a doctorate or has equivalent scientific competence.

A person is eligible for a position as Postdoctoral Researcher if he or she has obtained a PhD no more than seven years before the last date of employment as postdoc. The term can be extended under special circumstances.

The applicants should have a solid background in basic biology or medicine. Practical lab experience is essential, especially in the following areas: expression and purification of extracellular vesicles, fluorescent/confocal microscopy (ICC and IHC), protein analysis (Western blot, ELISA and IP), and cell culture work. It is crucial with previous experience from extensive work with mice, hence the applicant must hold a FELASA certificate. Work in EAE mouse model is highly merited.

Previous experience from molecular cloning is a merit. In addition, excellent proficiency in both spoken and written English is highly desired. We are looking for an energetic and passionate person who fits in, and actively contributes to our team.


Application process
An employment application must contain the following documents in English or Swedish:

- A complete curriculum vitae, including date of the thesis defence, title of the thesis, previous academic positions, academic title, current position, academic distinctions, and committee work
- A complete list of publications
- A summary of current work (no more than one page)
The application is to be submitted through the Varbi recruitment system.

Karolinska Institutet is one of the world’s leading medical universities. Its vision is to significantly contribute to the improvement of human health. Karolinska Institutet accounts for the single largest share of all academic medical research conducted in Sweden and offers the country’s broadest range of education in medicine and health sciences. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet selects the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine.
Pursuant to the regulations of the Swedish National Archives, applications are kept on file for two years after the appointment has gained legal force. The regulations do not apply to attachments that have been printed or otherwise published.
Karolinska Institutet strives to provide a workplace that has approximately the same number of women and men, is free of discrimination and offers equal opportunity to everyone.

For temp agencies and recruiters, and to salespersons: We politely, yet firmly, decline direct contact with temp agencies and recruiters, as well as those selling additional job announcements.