Blindern og Urbygningen (Foto: Wikimedia og Colourbox)
PhD Reseach Fellowship in Genetics of Autoimmunity Research
Deadline 11.11.2018
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 Clinical Medicine (Klinmed) is one of three institutes under the Faculty. Klinmed is responsible for the Faculty's educational and research activities at Oslo University Hospital and Akershus University Hospital. With about 800 employees spread over approximately 425 man-labour years, Klinmed is the university's largest institute. Our activities follow the clinical activity at the hospitals and are spread across a number of geographical areas.
A three-year full time PhD Research Fellowship is available in the Group Genetics of Autoimmunity, the Department of Medical Genetics, Institute of Clinical Medicine, The Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo (UiO). The position is funded by the Research Council of Norway.
The project is entitled the regulatory role of genetic risk factors for autoimmune diseases on thymic antigen presenting cells and self-tolerance. The project is anchored in the research group Genetics of Autoimmunity and cancer led by Professor Benedicte A. Lie. For more details about the group, please visit the web site at
The objective of the project is to reveal the regulatory role of autoimmune risk variants in human thymic antigen presenting cells by cellular, transcriptomic and epigenetic characterization of existing cell populations in the human thymus. Next, the correlations between risk alleles and expression profiles, alternative splicing and the binding of key transcription factors will be explored employing a variety of advanced wet-lab techniques including conventional and single-cell RNA-sequencing and ChIP-seq, as well as biostatistics and bioinformatics analyses.
The research fellow is expected to take active part in the research cooperation within the project. The research fellow must take part in the Faculty’s approved PhD program and is expected to complete the project and to follow the PhD program at the Medical faculty in order to obtain a PhD. This includes courses both locally at the University and abroad. Furthermore, the fellow will be encouraged to present their research regularly both in the department and at International scientific conferences.
The applicant must, in collaboration with her/his supervisor, within 3 months after employment, have worked out a complete project description to be attached to the application for admission to the doctoral program. For more information, please see our web site.
Qualification requirements
The purpose of the fellowship is research training leading to the successful completion of a PhD degree. The fellow must fulfill the requirements of and take part in the PhD program at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Oslo and is expected to complete the degree within the set fellowship period.
The ideal candidate:
Holds a Master degree in molecular biology, biochemistry or related fields.
Experience and practical skills in molecular biology methods like qPCR, working with RNA, Western blotting and sequencing are required.
Knowledge and experience in cell culture work and flow cytometry is an advantage.
Skills in bioinformatics and biostatistics analyses using R will be an asset.
The candidate must be fluent in English.
Knowledge in immunology and autoimmunity will be an asset.
Personal skills
We are looking for highly motivated, hard-working and organized candidate with ability to work both alone and in team.
The successful candidate should have a genuine interest in research and in pursuing a doctoral degree.
We offer
An exciting research environment with opportunities for academic development.
Pay Grade 51-57, from NOK 449 400 to NOK 497 000, depending on qualifications in a position as PhD Research fellow (position code 1017)
• Application letter describing the applicant’s qualifications and motivation for the position
• CV (summarizing education, positions and academic work - scientific publications)
• A complete list of publications
• Up to 3 academic publications that the applicant wishes to be considered by the evaluation committee
• Letters of recommendation or names and contact details of 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail and telephone number)
The application with attachments must be delivered in our electronic recruiting system, please follow the link “Apply for this job”. 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).
Applicants, who are invited for an interview, are asked to bring educational certificates, diploma or transcript of records.
Formal regulations
In accordance with the University of Oslo’s equal opportunities policy, we invite applications from all interested individuals regardless of gender or ethnicity.
The University of Oslo has an Acquisition of Rights Agreement for all employees for the purpose of securing intellectual property rights to research results, etc.
Please see the guidelines and regulations for appointments to Research Fellowships at the University of Oslo.
According to the Norwegian Freedom and Information Act (Offentleglova) information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure.
The University of Oslo has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results etc.
Contact information
Professor Benedicte Alexandrea Lie, phone number +47 23 01 66 46, e-mail:b.a.lie@medisin.uio.no
