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We are offering a PhD fellowship commencing in the period September/October 2025.

Job Description

The Perrier Lab at the Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, is seeking a motivated and talented PhD fellow to study the impact of gain-of-function (GOF) mutations in GABAA receptors implicated in developmental and epileptic encephalopathies (DEEs).

DEEs are severe early-onset conditions characterized by intractable epilepsy, intellectual disability, developmental delay or regression, movement disorders, and autism spectrum disorders. Although missense variants in GABAA receptor subunits are often assumed to cause loss of receptor function (LOF), recent work by our collaborators at the University of Sydney (Australia) and Filadelfia Hospital (Denmark) shows that GOF variants are just as prevalent, and their functional outcomes closely correlate with patient phenotypes.

Project Overview

The main goal of this project is to understand how mutations that increase inhibitory signaling in the brain can nevertheless lead to DEE. To address this, you will investigate animal models carrying GOF GABAA receptor mutations found in patients, examining their effects at multiple levels:

1. In Vivo

  • Monitor animal behavior and record electrocorticographic (ECoG) activity to detect abnormalities linked to patient symptoms.
2. In Vitro

  • Use brain slice preparations to measure neuronal activity at the microcircuit level, comparing GOF mutants to wild-type littermates. This approach will clarify why the cortex in GOF DEE models is hyperexcitable despite an overall increase in inhibitory signaling.
Based on these findings, you will contribute to the design and testing of targeted treatments aimed at correcting the underlying defects, first in vitro and subsequently in vivo. This project will be conducted in close collaboration with Filadelfia Hospital, which maintains a cohort of patients affected by these rare and severe conditions.

Principal supervisor: Professor, Jean-François Perrier, Department of Neuroscience, E-mail: perrier@sund.ku.dk. Direct Phone: +45-23812746.

Start: September/October 2025

Duration: 3 years as a PhD student

Qualification Requirements

  • A Master’s degree (or equivalent) in neuroscience, pharmacology, physiology, or a related field.
  • Experience with electrophysiology, animal behavior studies is required.
  • Strong motivation, excellent communication skills, and the ability to work independently and as part of a team.
  • Good communication skills in English, both oral and written.
  • Willingness to engage in teamwork
The preferred applicant should have an excellent academic track record, solid research experience and be highly motivated to deploy diverse strategies to extract novel findings of importance to pathophysiology. Previous research experience in an ambitious research environment is required.

Duties

The PhD fellow will investigate how the mutation affects the electrical properties of cortical microcircuits. To do this, they will prepare brain slices from mice and use the patch-clamp technique to record single-neuron activity. The project will also incorporate calcium imaging and pharmacological approaches. The fellow will be responsible for designing, conducting, and analyzing these experiments, with ongoing support from the principal investigator and other group members.

Our group and environment

The candidate will join the Perrier Lab and be part of the “From disease-causing variants to targeted therapy in GABA-A receptor related epilepsies” consortium—a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, Filadelfia Hospital (Denmark), and the University of Sydney (Australia), funded by the Lundbeck Foundation. Our facilities include state-of-the-art laboratories, cutting-edge core facilities, and modern office spaces.

This position provides a unique opportunity to develop expertise in the mechanisms underlying developmental and epileptic encephalopathies. We strive for academic excellence, collegial respect, and responsible freedom, offering a creative, welcoming, and stimulating environment within a strong scientific community.

Terms of employment

The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week.

The position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of 3 years. The start date is in the period September-October 2025.

The employment is conditioned upon the applicant’s successful enrolment as a PhD student at the Graduate School at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project formulated by the applicant.

The PhD study must be completed in accordance with The Ministerial Order on the PhD programme (2013) and the faculty’s rules on achieving the degree.

Salary, pension and terms of employment are in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Taxation and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State. Depending on seniority, the monthly salary starts at approximately 30,800 DKK/Roughly 4,100 EUR (April 2025 level) plus pension.

Workplace

Workplace is located at Maersk Tower, The Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Further information

Further information may be obtained from Professor Perrier: perrier@sund.ku.dk.

Application procedure

Your application must be submitted electronically by clicking ‘Apply now’ below. The application must include the following documents in PDF format:

  1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page)
  2. CV incl. education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position
  3. Certified copy of original Master of Science diploma and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in other language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted. As a prerequisite for a PhD fellowship employment, your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree. We encourage you to read more in the assessment database: https://ufm.dk/en/education/recognitionand-transparency/find-assessments/assessment-database. Please note that we might ask you to obtain an assessment of your education performed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science
  4. Publication list (if possible)
Application deadline: 15 June 2025, 23.59pm CET

We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process

After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor.

The assessor makes a non-prioritized assessment of the academic qualifications and experience with respect to the above-mentioned area of research, techniques, skills and other requirements listed in the advertisement.

Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.

You can find information about the recruitment process at: https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

The applicants will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.

Please note in your application that you found the job at Jobindex

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