Postdoctoral Fellow - Haase Lab

.About the team/jobThe European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is one of the highest ranked scientific research organizations in the world. The newest EMBL site is located in the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), one of the largest infrastructures in Southern Europe dedicated to translational research. The main focus of the EMBL Barcelona site is in tissue biology and disease modelling.The Postdoctoral Fellow position will support the project 'A novel Maternal-Fetal-Interface on-Chip for Human Investigation of Placental exposures and infections (MFI-CHIP)' with the contract as part of the grant PID2023-152966NB-I00, funded by MCIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the ESF+.The Haase lab's main interest is in developing tissue-specific 3D in vitro vascular models that recapitulate developmental and diseased vascular phenotypes. Our unique tissue-engineering approaches allow us to generate human microvessels with in vivo-like characteristics. As part of the MFI-CHIP grant we aim to further develop a novel 3D vascularized maternal-fetal interface to represent late-stage of the placental barrier. Specifically, we aim to investigate the impact of sex differences, hormones, and exposures on transport across this critical placental barrier.Your roleWe are looking for an extremely motivated candidate who will take on this cutting-edge project, which has translational potential. The successful candidate will learn, from a current senior team member, how to set up the 3D culture of an in vitro maternal-fetal interface on-chip. The candidate will become adept at employing the model and all associated assays and analysis techniques. As part of a collaboration with local clinical researchers, the candidate will isolate primary-derived trophoblast cells from explanted placenta for incorporation and optimization on-chip. Once optimized, the model will be used to explore a range of questions related to sex differences, exposures, and infection. For the latter part of the project, a collaborative aim is to explore malaria infection in the placenta model, in partnership with the Bernabeu group at EMBL Barcelona