PhD student in synthetic organic/medicinal chemistry

We are looking for a highly motivated and enthusiastic PhD student (promovendus f/m) to join the Tracer Center Amsterdam (TCA). The successful candidate will work on an ERC Synergy funded collaborative research project focused on the development of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) tracers for malaria parasites. The position will be placed in a highly interdisciplinary research setting that brings together scientists from a number of disciplines including molecular biology, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, radiopharmaceutical chemistry and imaging. As a PhD student in this project, your main task will be to design and synthesize novel ligands for a biological target that shows increased expression in parasites developing from a dormant to an active state. You will subsequently radiolabel promising compounds for in vitro and in vivo applications. You will be part of multidisciplinary team at the TCA and will work closely together with research groups from the consortium partners at BPRC (Prof. Cocken) and Radboud University (Prof. Bartfai). 

As a PhD student on this project you will: 

• synthesize biologically active compounds for the target of interest;
• carry out structure-activity relationship studies;
• radiolabel selected PET candidates;
• work closely with our collaborators;
• present at meetings, symposia and conferences;
• be involved in supervision of BSc and MSc students.

We invite applications from ambitious candidates, who meet the following requirements:

• a MSc degree in medicinal chemistry or organic chemistry;
• experience in synthetic organic chemistry;
• an interest in drug/tracer development;
• good collaboration skills;
• excellent communications skills in English, both spoken and written.