Reference: ESR7/CSIC

The main objective of this project is to understand the role of autophagy for retinal ganglion cell survival during retinal development. Retinal ganglion cells are the only projecting neurons of the retina and their axons form the optic nerve, which connect the light sensitive retinal tissue with the visual cortex in the brain. Retinal ganglion cells are essential for vision and their death is associated with glaucoma, an age-related disease that is the second cause of blindness in the world.
Within this project the PhD student will determine whether autophagy and the autophagic flux increases during retinal ganglion cell neurogenesis, and correlate them with proliferation, differentiation and cell death. In addition the PhD student will study whether autophagy is essential for retinal ganglion cell neurogenesis and whether it is essential for cell survival. The PhD student will compare the phenotype of several autophagy-deficient mice during different developmental stages. Proliferation, differentiation and cell death will be assessed using several methods, including immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry and electron microscopy. Moreover we will also assess retinal ganglion cell cultures and models of axonal damage to retinal ganglion cells as model of glaucoma.

Location: The Biological Research Center (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas – CSIC), Madrid Spain
Supervisor: Dr. Patricia Boya
Length of appointment: 36 months (3 years) (36 months is the maximum amount of months financed by the EC. The host institution might have other arrangements. E.g., at the UMCG, a contract for another 12 months will be offered to the PhD student recruited at the expense of the UMCG budget. If that is the case in your institution, please add that information here)
Indicative Starting date: May 2018
Type of Contract: temporary
Hours per week: 40 hours

Deadline for application is 9 January 2018  at 23.59 h Brussels time zone gmt.

UPDATE: This vacancy is now closed.

More information about the host laboratory can be found at https://www.cib.csic.es/research/cellular-and-molecular-biology/roles-autophagy-health-and-disease