Post-doc Multmodal imaging of human atherosclerotic plaques

AMBER cofund project - announcement post-doctoral position

Description of the AMBER project context 

This post-doctoral position is part of the EU cofund research project AMBER, Advanced Multiscale Biological imaging using European Research infrastructures, will address scientific and sectoral gaps in biological imaging ranging from molecular, through cellular, to tissue, organ and organism levels of organisation, and is coordinated by LINXS Institute of advanced Neutron and X-ray Science.

AMBER is funded by the EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) COFUND scheme.

Around 10 postdocs will be recruited in the Third call 2024, with each fellowship lasting 36 months.

AMBER has six core partners: Lund University/MAX IV, Sweden, the European Spallation Source (ESS), Sweden, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), France, the International Institute of Molecular Mechanisms and Machines, (IMOL), Poland, and the Leicester Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology, United Kingdom.

Your work may include clinical and biomedical projects. It may also include technique development work aimed at combining imaging techniques and data analysis to provide a more integrated picture of life processes in the context of health and disease. To be a postdoc fellow at the AMBER programme you will get unprecedented medical, biological, and methodological capabilities, with a profound potential impact for Europe’s next generation of research and researchers. When you have completed the AMBER programme you will be extraordinarily well equipped to further your career in academia, at infrastructures, in the health and MedTech sectors, and beyond.

For more information about the total announced post-doctoral positions within in the AMBER co-fund project please visit https://www.euraxess.se/jobs/289120

The interviews will start in June 2025. For more information about AMBER, application and evaluation process etc please visit: ambercofund.eu

Qualification requirements

Minimum requirements are:

• candidate needs to have a maximum 8 years after a doctoral degree (PhD), as required by the project Grant Agreement signed with the European Commission,
• at least one original publication in a peer-reviewed journal,
• a background in the relevant methods,
• a complete application package submitted through the AMBER portal (including CV and detailed research plan), and finally,
• strict compliance with the MSCA mobility rule that the researcher must not have resided or carried out his/her main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the host organisation's country for more than twelve months in the three years immediately prior to the call deadline.

Each project will have additional specific requirements that candidates have to fulfill, be sure to check what these are before you apply.

Instructions on how to apply

For more information and documents/templates/europass link, please visit https://www.ambercofund.eu/for-applicants.

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure that you upload all the required documents specified below i-ix.

If you are interested in applying for more than one position (maximum 3) you must be prepared to make a full application for each individual position.

Applications shall be written in English and all documents shall be in pdf format.

1. i) A Curriculum Vitae (europass format). Your CV shall be exported to a PDF file that you use in your application.
2. ii) A detailed research plan including any foreseen secondments (candidates can suggest more than the mandated one, they can also suggest their own secondments), schools and conferences as well as a templated budget plan. (as concise as possible, recommended about 3-5 pages, but at an absolute maximum 10 pages. The research plan should include a half page of summary/abstract.

Additional texts to include in the PDF are:

iii) Letter of Commitment from any additional secondment partners the candidate wishes to bring onboard.

1. iv) Evidence of English proficiency (minimum CEFR B22, also checked at interview).
2. v) A draft Individual Career Development Plan (ICDP).
3. vi) Two reference letters.

vii) Any additional documents to support the application.

viii) Ethical questionnaire (HE ethics checklist + research ethics commitment)

In addition, the application will require:

1. ix) Any candidate can apply for maximum of 3 positions. You must apply for each individual position. A list with order of preference of positions should be sent to the AMBER management. amber@linxs.se

Project name

Multimodal imaging of human atherosclerotic plaques to prevent strokes and heart attacks

Topic area: Biomedical imaging

Name and working place of the Principal investigator

Isabel Gonçalves, Clinical Sciences Malmö, Lund University

Isabel Gonçalves is Professor of Cardiology (Clinical Sciences Malmö, Lund University) and active cardiologist (senior consultant) at the Skåne University Hospital. Her research group uses and develops clinical and experimental imaging modalities to study atherosclerosis mechanisms, that underlie heart attacks and strokes, to improve their early diagnosis and discover new therapies to treat them

Project description
Heart attacks and strokes are the largest causes of death and disability in the world. Atherosclerosis, the disease that underlies most of these cardiovascular events, consists on the formation of plaques (accumulations of lipids and inflammatory cells) in the arterial walls. When these plaques rupture, subsequent thrombosis occurs cause those events. The plaques that are prone to rupture seem to have a particular composition that is currently difficult to identify with clinical methods and that is still largely unknown due to an enormous complexity.

Human plaque components such as lipid cores, necrosis/apoptosis, intra plaque-hemorrhage, thin fibrous cap, inflammation, micro and macro calcifications, damaged collagen and/or elastic fibers are highly relevant for the risk of rupture. However, many of these components are difficult to study by conventional methods as histology. Therefore, nondestructive methods, with high-resolution as synchrotron-based technologies create unique opportunities to study these complex atherosclerotic plaques, which are the largest killers all over the world.

Human atherosclerotic plaque from our biobank (one of the largest and most detailed in the world with more than 1700 human samples) will be studied with clinically used modalities, in vivo (in the patients) and with state- of-the-art after being removed from the patients so that their composition is analyzed with unprecedented detail. We use standardized high-resolution ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), photon counting computed tomography, micro-CT and synchrotron-based technologies (as X-ray fluorescence, small and wide angle X-ray scattering) and advanced histological techniques. With a highly international and multidisciplinary team (of nurses, doctors, pathologists, cardiologists, experimental and clinical scientists, physicists, bioinformaticians), we are committed to characterize the mechanisms of atherosclerotic plaque rupture, mostly with non-destructive high-resolution techniques, allowing us to improve diagnosis and discover novel therapeutic targets against heart attacks and strokes.

Qualifications
We are looking for a new colleague with a PhD in Biology or Chemistry or Bioinformatics or Data Science or similar, with interest in image segmentation, quantification and development of strategies for analyses that can ultimately be applied in human disease.