The Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) is publishing the first call for students for its PhD program, which consists of
Fully funded doctoral positions (PhD, MD/PhD, Dr. rer. nat., or equivalent)
BIH’s mission is medical translation: to transfer the results of biomedical research into novel approaches to personalized prediction, prevention, diagnostics and therapies and, conversely, to use clinical observations to develop new research ideas. The aim is to deliver medically relevant benefits to patients and the general population.
Program description:
The BIH PhD Program contributes to the overall translational mission of BIH. This PhD program aims at fostering interdisciplinarity and will support and promote young translational talents within the BIH ecosystem and beyond. Positions in the BIH PhD Program are intended for students who wish to obtain a doctoral degree and who are motivated to carry out translational research. The following projects are open for applications:
- 3D FTSE skin organoid based analysis of helper CD8+ T cells in health and disease
- Beyond Antiretrovirals - Exploring the role of Immunotherapy in HIV Remission
- Controlling inflammation using bio-engineering liver patch
- Improved antifungal therapy using adapted parenteral nutrition
- Improving cellular fitness of therapeutic cell products by modulation of the heterochromatic DNA methylation profile (CellFit_by_HetMeth)
- Massively parallel base-editing to map variant effects in clonal hematopoiesis
- Tissue-specific mRNA design yielding highly efficient and safe gene editing in human epithelia
- Using LOINC and HPO to identify new diseases and patient subgroups in the Charité
The duration of a position in the BIH PhD Program is three years with a possible extension of up to one year. The BIH PhD Program enables selected candidates to enroll in one of its cooperating PhD schools (BSIO, BSRT, CompCancer, HEIBRiDS, MolMed, MDC Graduate school, among others) or structured PhD programs. Fellows of the BIH PhD Program are required to follow the curriculum of the PhD school or structured program with which they are affiliated. In addition, BIH will organize a translational curriculum corresponding to about 5 ECTS over three years, in which fellows must also participate.
Who can apply?
We are looking for excellent candidates with a Master’s degree in various fields (Life Sciences, Bioinformatics, Mathematics, Physics, Computational Biology or similar, depending on the project you are applying for) and qualified to pursue a doctoral degree. You must have a strong academic background, exceptional motivation in doing translational research and a track record that matches the project(s) for which you are applying.
How does the selection take place?
The projects open for application to the BIH PhD Program are listed above. Each project is looking for a suitable and high-motivated candidate. Interested candidates can apply from October 11 to November 22, 2023 (2:00 p.m., Central European Time (CET)) via the BIA application portal (see link below).
If pre-selected, applicants will be invited per e-mail on December 11 to the selection days that will take place from January 17 to 19, 2024. On January 17, invited candidates will have panel interviews with the PIs. The two next days will be focused on individual interviews, organized between PIs and candidates.
At the end of the selection days, successful candidates will be assigned to a project via a matching process considering the preferences of both applicants and principal investigators.
What do we offer?
- Working in an international environment with a translational focus
- Belonging to an inspiring scientific community within BIH
- Remuneration at E13 according to TVöD VKA-K, as a rule at 65%. The doctoral contract will be drawn up in accordance with formal regulation section 2.1 of the WissZeitVG (https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/wisszeitvg/__2.html) for the entire duration of the doctorate.
- Appointment duration: three years with the possibility to extend to four years if necessary to the completion of the degree
- 30 vacation days per year
- Additional benefits customary in the public sector
We live diversity! BIH strongly encourages qualified women to apply. Applications from people with an immigrant background who meet the hiring requirements are expressly encouraged (please note that candidates from outside the European Union will be invited to participate online to the selection days). Severely disabled applicants and those with equal status will be given preferential consideration in case of equal suitability.
How to apply?
Applications can be submitted from October 11 to November 22, 2023 (2:00 p.m., CET), on the BIH application portal (see link below).