Phd Student Bone Biology

The AO is a medically-guided, not-for-profit organization, a global network of surgeons, and the world's leading education, innovation, and research organization specializing in the surgical treatment of trauma and musculoskeletal disorders. We have a global network of more than 460,000 health care professionals in 160 countries. Each year we offer 800 educational events around the world, supported by over 7,000 faculty members and attended by over 98,000 participants. We have over 18,000 surgeon members working in the fields of trauma, spine, craniomaxillofacial, veterinary, and reconstructive surgery.
- Employment Type: Temporary- Part-time percentage: 100%- This position is located in: Davos Platz, CH- Experience level: Students / Interns-
The PhD position is embedded within the SNSF Sinergia project** **SLIHI4BONE** **(project start 01.04.2023) focusing on a newly-proposed mechanism explaining the formation of bone in soft tissue, the so-called heterotopic ossification. According to this mechanism, tissue mineralization may provoke a sustained local ionic homeostatic imbalance, and this local decrease in extracellular calcium may modulate inflammation to trigger bone formation. The general project aim is to assess the validity of this mechanism and to use it for healing large bone defects.

Project team and setup: Within the project we will follow a multidisciplinary collaborative approach for which we are recruiting 3 PhD students focusing on material science (PhD position at RMS Foundation), in vivo imaging/computational methods (PhD position at LBB, ETHZ) and in vivo molecular biology (PhD position at ARI). An additional Postdoc position (at LBB, ETHZ) will be focusing on the development of multiphoton imaging technology. This multidisciplinary team setup will allow to design calcium phosphate materials with controlled architecture, composition, and to assess their rate of mineralization in vitro and in vivo. The level of extracellular calcium and the tissue response around the materials will be followed by multimodal approaches including (among others) time-lapsed in vivo imaging, multiphoton microscopy, spatial transcriptomics and proteomics.

**In this role, you are required to**:

- Development of _in vivo_ model setups for HO and impaired bone healing
- Design of cell-type specific calcium-reporter mice
- Histology/immunohistochemistry
- Application of _in vivo_ micro-computed and multiphoton imaging

**To master this challenge, you have**:

- MSc degree in molecular biology, biomedical sciences, veterinary medicine or related discipline
- Previous experience in molecular biology is required
- Experience with RNAseq, proteomics, histology or multiphoton microscopy is advantageous
- Previous _in vivo_ experience is advantageous
- Excellent communication skills in English (oral and written) are a must
- High motivation, strong interest in musculoskeletal research, durability to cope with challenges
- Ability to solve complex tasks in a highly independent manner
- Familiarity with a cross-cultural/interdisciplinary environment is an advantage

We offer
- An interesting and varied job in an exciting and innovative organization
- The opportunity to be part of a highly committed international team
- Modern infrastructure
- Employment conditions which match the requirements and offer a high degree of flexibility regarding working hours and location
- Date of publication: Jan 18, 2023