Postdoc Parkinson’s disease (PD) - biomarker discovery

Parkinson’s disease is a devastating brain disease, which is fast-growing and currently uncurable. Parkinson's disease is characterized by neuronal inclusions, named Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites, containing aggregated lipids and proteins.The protein alpha-synuclein plays a central role in the pathogenesis of both Parkinson's, as it is the primary protein constituent of Lewy bodies.

Early and accurate identification of Parkinson's is crucial for tailoring therapeutic strategies (for example, for patient recruitment in clinical trials) and offering better prognostic insights to patients and their families. However, to date, no reliable, clinically applicable biomarkers have been established for Parkinson's.

Abnormalities in vesicle trafficking and lipid metabolism are common features of neurodegenerative brain diseases (NDs), including Parkinson's disease. It is unclear whether disturbed vesicle trafficking and lipid metabolism is a cause or consequence, or both, of alpha-synuclein aggregation. Since neuronal health, synaptic function, and protein aggregation all heavily rely on proper membrane function and lipid metabolism, we will study if disease-associated alterations in vesicular trafficking and lipid metabolism could be the root of neurodegeneration in Parkinson's.

• You will select and process plasma samples for isolation of extracellular vesicles and subsequent lipidomics and proteomics analysis.
• You will perform the targeted and untargeted lipidomics analysis in close collaboration with the Amsterdam UMC core facility.
• You will setup novel biochemical assays for identified candidate biomarkers.
• You will contribute to the integration of the proteomics (OLINK and massaspectrometry), lipidomics and genomics datasets of the included cohort.
• You will be involved in biobanking and ethics approval for biomarker studies.

We are looking for a candidate who has experience with the characterisation of IPSC-derived dopaminergic or cortical neurons.

• You have a recent PhD degree in Biomedical Science, Molecular/Cellular Biology, Neuroscience, or a related field with a keen interest in molecular and cellular mechanisms of neurodegenerative disorders.
• Programming skills and experience with proteomic or lipidomic analysis is required.
• Experience with data-analysis with R is required;
• You are highly motivated, creative and willing to work with human blood samples and large -omics datasets.
• Within this project most communication will be in English, so fluency in English and excellent communication and organizational skills are essential.
• You are communicative, well organized, independent and willing to supervise PhD and Msc students.