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2 year position as researcher at Norwegian Transgenic Centre

Deadline: 05.06.2021

Job description

Universitetet i Oslo

The University of Oslo is Norway’s oldest and highest ranked educational and research institution, with 28 000 students and 7000 employees. With its broad range of academic disciplines and internationally recognised research communities, UiO is an important contributor to society.


The Institute of Basic Medical Sciences (IMB) is one of three basic units at the Medical Faculty. IMB is divided into four academic departments, whereof Department of Nutrition is one of the larger departments. The Institute is responsible for education within basic medical science and clinical nutrition and pursue research in these fields. The overall objectives at IMB is to promote basic medical knowledge in order to understand normal processes, provide insight into mechanisms that cause illness, and promote good health. The institute has approximately 300 employees and is located in the Domus Medica building.


The Department of Nutrition at University of Oslo is the largest nutrition department in Europe associated with a Medical Faculty. The Department has a broad and highly active research environment with excellent publication record. Research activities performed at the department are within the fields of nutritional biology, molecular nutrition, clinical nutrition, nutritional epidemiology, diet research and research on policy instruments.

Additional information is available on the Department home page.

A position as a researcher is available at the Norwegian Transgenic Centre (NTS), located at Department of Nutrition, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences (IMB), Medical Faculty, University of Oslo (UiO) for a period of 2 years. The position may be extended provided that the Centre secure additional external funding.

More about the position

The Norwegian Transgenic Centre (NTS) is a Medical Faculty core facility funded by the institute (IMB) and Helse-SørØst. The Centre provides techniques for generation, maintenance, preservation, and metabolic characterization of transgenic mouse models for the Norwegian research community. The NTS core facility performs transgenic services to customers in the region, including blastocyst injections of ES cells, targeting construct design, pronuclear injections of transgene constructs, design and in vitro synthesis of sgRNAs, CRISPR-Cas9 (and ZFN) genome editing in mouse embryos, rederivation of transgenic lines, sperm- and embryo cryopreservation. Additional information can be found here.

Staff at NTS work closely with the ‘lipid droplet’ research group, both headed by Knut Tomas Dalen. The researcher will be recruited to the phenotyping unit of the NTS core and work on the NutriFrail research project (Nutrition and frailty). NutriFrail is a multidisciplinary project at Department of Nutrition, funded by Throne Holst Foundation and coordinated by Professor Anette Hjartåker; with a common goal to investigate frailty in elderly with nutritional epidemiology, clinical studies and animal models.

The recruited researcher will be responsible for following up dietary interventions in mice in NutriFrail, by measuring body weight, body composition, food intake, oversee the overall health of the animals; and perform various tests in vivo such as metabolic phenotyping, glucose tolerance tests, exercise capacity tests, grip strength measurements and neurological/behavioral tests. The person will also perform various molecular analysis of collected biological samples.

In addition, as a part of the NTS metabolic phenotyping team, the person will meet and correspond with customers and assist with metabolic phenotyping. The person will be involved in other research projects in the lipid droplet group and will have the ability to secure independent funding and administer self-initiated research activities.

Qualification requirements and Personal Skills

Applicants must hold a minimum PhD degree equivalent to a Norwegian doctoral degree in Nutrition, Biochemistry or Medicine. Alternatively, equivalent relevant long-lasting track record with transgenic mice and metabolic phenotyping. The Centre is constantly renewing procedures and extending the list of performed services. We seek a candidate that is flexible and open minded with interest to learn and set up new techniques at the Centre.

The center seeks a person with the following qualifications:

  • Must have official approval for conducting animal research (FELASA-C / EU-functions A and B certificate, approved for work in a Norwegian animal facility).
  • Must be well experienced with handling of mice (alternatively rats).
  • Must be well experiences in molecular analyses (e.g. RT-qPCR, immunoblotting, cryo-tissue sectioning and histology, ELISA, lipid analyses).
  • Should be experienced with diet intervention studies and metabolic phenotyping, preferable Phenomaster (TSE System), and oral gavage/glucose tolerance tests.
  • Should be experienced with statistical analysis, e.g. of metabolic phenotyping data.
  • Should have experience in transgenic animal surgical procedures, insulin- and glucose tolerance tests and body composition determination, preferable TD-NMR (Minispec MF90II,Bruker).
  • Excellent command of written and oral English, and preferable Norwegian.
  • Knowledge in microinjection procedures into embryos or blastocysts, CRISPR-Cas9 technology, breeding and genotyping is considered a plus.

When assessing applications, particular emphasis will be placed upon the candidate’s ability to perform diet interventions, metabolic phenotyping, body composition measurement, tolerance tests and relevant surgical procedures/dissection.

We offer

  • Salary NOK 526000 – 608 200 per annum depending on qualifications in position as Researcher (position code 1109)
  • A professionally stimulating working environment
  • Attractive welfare benefits and a generous pension agreement, in addition to Oslo’s family-friendly environment with its rich opportunities for culture and outdoor activities

How to apply

The application must include

  • Cover letter (statement of motivation, summarizing scientific work and research interest)
  • CV (summarizing education, positions, pedagogical experience, administrative experience and other qualifying activity)
  • Copies of educational certificates (academic transcripts only)
  • A complete list of publications
  • List of reference persons: 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail and phone number)

The application with attachments must be delivered in our electronic recruiting system. Foreign applicants are advised to attach an explanation of their University's grading system. Please note that all documents should be in English (or a Scandinavian language).

In assessing the applications, special emphasis will be placed on the documented, academic qualifications, as well as the candidates motivation and personal suitability. Interviews with the best qualified candidates will be arranged.It is expected that the successful candidate will be able to complete the project in the course of the period of employment.

Formal regulations

Please see the guidelines and regulations for appointments to research posts at the University of Oslo.

Inclusion and diversity are a strength. The University of Oslo has a personnel policy objective of achieving a balanced gender composition. We also want to have employees with diverse expertise, combinations of subjects, life experience and perspectives. We will make adjustments for employees who require this.

If there are qualified applicants with special needs, gaps in their CVs or immigrant backgrounds, we will invite at least one applicant in each of these groups to an interview.

Contact information

For further information regarding the position and the research environment, please contact:

  • Associate Professor Knut Tomas Dalen. E-mail: k.t.dalen@medisin.uio.no, Phone: +47-22 85 15 15

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