The focus of this role is to establish and further develop cell models to study disease mechanisms and novel gene-targeted therapies for ALS.
ALS is a rapidly progressive, fatal disease in which motor neurons degenerate. Since 2024, for the first time in 150 years of research, effective gene-targeted therapies have become available for patients with specific mutations in the SOD1 gene (<1% of all ALS patients). In this research line, we develop in vitro patient models to investigate which patients may qualify for these and future gene-targeted therapies.
The laboratory technician will develop a diverse set of skills, including the transdifferentiation of fibroblasts and PBMCs into neurons (iNeurons), screening of antisense oligonucleotides (AONs), and characterization of treatment response through live-cell imaging, staining, and possibly electrophysiological studies or transcriptomic analyses. The infrastructure, expertise, and protocols are already in place, but we hope for an active contribution to further improve these models.
You will work with a diverse group of colleagues with backgrounds in biomedical sciences, medicine, and bioinformatics, both within and outside UMC Utrecht (including the Dutch Center for RNA Therapeutics and Charles River Laboratories). This is based on informal and close collaboration with PhD candidates, postdocs, and fellow laboratory technicians on an equal footing.
