Position as Staff Scientist in Organoid Biology, RNA Therapeutics and Cardiometabolic Disease
Job Summary
The Opportunity:
We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Staff Scientist (AC-TAP) to be a cornerstone and formative members of a new groundbreaking initiative at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) focused on RNA therapeutics in cardiometabolic diseases.
This is a unique opportunity to lead a critical project at the intersection of (micro)RNA biology advanced human model systemics nanomedicine and disease therapeutics. You will be able to contribute to our vision to translate basic disease findings into medicinal RNA approaches to improve the lives of people suffering from cardiometabolic disease.
This two-year position (with the wish and possibility of extension for another 2-3 years) is ideal for a scientist with deep technical expertise and passion of alleviating disease burden who thrives on enabling research developing new technologies and mentoring scientists.
Our Vision:
To pioneer RNA-based platforms (oligonucleotides mRNA) to achieve gain-of-function in liver and extrahepatic organs like adipose tissue and vascular cell types with the aim of alleviating cardiometabolic disease burden in human patients.
Key Responsibilities:
- Setting up validating and maintaining human adipose organoid platforms
- Testing LNP-mRNA with scaling and QC and antisense oligonucleotides to perturb human micro/mRNA targets.
- Upscaling of human adipose and liver organotypic setups to robotic.
- Writing and implementing SOPs managing critical instruments.
- Hands-on training and guiding PhD students postdocs and technical staff.
- Collaborating and technical lead on projects including designing experiments troubleshooting complex problems and generating the high-quality data that drives our projects forward.
Your Profile:
- PhD in molecular biology biochemistry cell biology physiology or a related field with a strong methodological focus.
- Several years of productive postdoctoral or equivalent experience from industry academic or a core facility as evidenced by high-impact publications patents and conference proceedings
- Satisfaction in training academic researchers and helping them succeed in their projects.
- A strong collaborator with excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
- Excellent communicator (written and verbal) with a clear passion for translating basic findings into therapeutic approaches and an ability to communicate with industrial innovation and academic collaborators.
- Meticulous and organised with a proven ability to manage complex projects and maintain high-quality documentation (e.g. Jupyter).
Technical Expertise:
You have demonstrated hands-on expertise in several of the following:
- iPSC models with focus on adipocytes / adipose tissue.
- Experience with RNA-based platforms in cardiometabolic cells and tissues.
- Designingdelivery and benchmarking anti-miRs and microRNA AAV decoys.
- Rodent models of metabolic disease and expertise in animal husbandry.
What We Offer:
Youll be joining a prolific internationally recognized research group at the Functional Genomics and Metabolic (FGM) Section at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular at SDU. Our group focusses on fundamental principles in gene regulation epigenetics noncoding RNAs and adipose biology with a strong to developing the next generation of RNA-based medicines (Kornfeld Nature 2013 Oliverio Nature Cell Biology 2016 Awazawa Nature Medicine 2017 Schmidt Nature Communications 2018 Pradas-Juni Nature Communications 2020 Park Nature Metabolism 2021 Engelhard iScience 2023 Khani-Topel Nature Metabolism 2024 Kaul Nature Metabolism 2025).
We provide:
- A stable supportive and collaborative research environment.
- Rich inter-sectorial collaborations with industrial and academic partners.
- A unique position working at the intersection of microRNA and mRNA target discovery and innovation.
- Access to state-of-the-art facilities for proteomics molecular biology and in vivo studies.
- Affiliation with the Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Adipocyte Signalling (ADIPOSIGN) an international research consortium at FGM with focus on multi-omic mapping of cardiometabolic (adipocyte) dysfunction.
- Dedicated mentorship and career development.
- A competitive salary and benefits package in accordance with Danish regulations.
Contact Information:
For further information please contact Professor Jan-Wilhelm Kornfeld tel..
Your application must include the following:
- A targeted letter of motivation (max 2 pages). This must state your unique suitability and motivation for this specific applications will not be considered!
- At minimum one PhD and one postdoc publication that should constitute the basis forassessment.
- A curriculum vitae including information on two references from your PhD/postdoc.
- A full list of publications stating the scientific publications.
- Diploma
Employment shall take place in accordance with the framework agreement between the Ministry of Finance andAC (the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations).
Application must include cover letter CV and certificate. All documents in connection with the application should not contain CPR number (civil registration number) in that case the CPR number must be crossed out.
All attached files must be in Adobe PDF format. Cover letter and CV can contain max. 5 Mb.
We recommend that you readhowto applybefore you apply.
The University wishes our staff to reflect the diversity of society and thus welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background.
About SDU
The University of Southern Denmark was established to create value for and with society. Whether our contributions come in the form of excellent research innovative solutions education or learning we must make a positive difference to society and contribute to a sustainable future. We do this by cultivating talents and creating the best environments for research and learning. It is therefore crucial that SDU retains develops and recruits talent. At the same time we need to ensure consistently high quality in all our activities and we can only do that with the right people. The Universitys researchers lecturers students managers and technical/administrative staff are the foundation of our success.
Required Experience:
Staff IC
Key Skills
About Company
The University of Southern Denmark was established to create value for and with society. Whether our contributions come in the form of excellent research, innovative solutions, education or learning, we must make a positive difference to society and contribute to a sustainable future. ... View more