.Organisation/Company: Fundació Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron- Institut de recercaDepartment: Research DepartmentResearch Field: Biological sciencesResearcher Profile: First Stage Researcher (R1)Positions: PhD PositionsCountry: SpainApplication Deadline: 30 Sep 2024 - 23:59 (Europe/Andorra)Type of Contract: TemporaryJob Status: Full-timeHours Per Week: 40Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Other EU programmeIs the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? NoOffer Description Research group on Neuromuscular and Mitochondrial diseasesVHIR offers a position for a Predoctoral researcher within the Research group on Neuromuscular and Mitochondrial diseases to participate in the project "Identification of factors regulating mitochondrial respiratory complex I function and stability: exploring novel opportunities for therapeutic intervention (TARGETCOMPLEX-I)".This contract is part of the project PID2023-147668OB-I00, financed by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the FSE+, by the Call Formación de Personal Investigador Predoctoral (FPI) linked to a Proyecto de Generación del Conocimiento 2023. This project is intended to increase our knowledge on the mechanisms regulating respiratory complex I (CI) function. Mutations affecting CI activity are not only the most frequent cause of mitochondrial disease, a subset of rare diseases, but CI deficiency plays a pivotal role in many other prevalent diseases.A few years ago, we described how a particular subunit of CI, NDUFA10, is bound to most of the dGTP present in mitochondria. This observation leads to our hypothesis that NDUFA10 may play additional roles within CI beyond its participation in the holoenzyme stabilization.Our first aim with this project is to gain understanding on NDUFA10 function within mitochondrial respiratory complex I (CI). To this end, we plan a series of biochemical tests on different available models and the generation of a new NDUFA10 mutant mouse with disrupted dGTP binding that allows to specifically address the in vivo role of this interaction.In addition, we will use an already available CI deficient mouse model with mutations in NDUFA10 (Ndufa10CI) to explore the contribution of stress-elicited responses to disease and to tackle the study of mechanisms involved in tissue-specific regulation of CI function and organization by a series of proteomic analyses.Finally, we will use the Ndufa10CI mouse for the preclinical evaluation of different therapeutic strategies for treating CI deficiency.The FPI awardee will join our team to work developing some aspects of the mentioned project as part of his/her PhD thesis. Our group is currently composed by 12 scientists at different stages of their career, 5 of them also pursuing their PhD projects. We all share a strong scientific motivation and build an enriching, collaborative and enjoyable work atmosphere
