The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW) at Faculty of Health & Medical Science at the University of Copenhagen is looking for post-doctoral fellows to join the Brickman group starting September 1st or upon agreement. These positions will explore enhancer regulation in response to FGF/ERK signaling as a means to understand how transcription factors interface with signaling to regulate cell fate choice in early development as part of an ERC advanced grant program, “Signaling decoded in ENhanCEr states – a molecular basis for plasticity in development and differentiation (SENCE).” These positions can also be associated with a second project focused on a similar phenomena in Ventral Foregut derived from human pluripotent stem cells, where we have observed proliferation leads to the commissioning of appropriate enhancers and decommissioning of inappropriate ones.

Our research
The Brickman group is interested in the transcriptional basis for cell fate choice, exploring both fundamental mechanisms of transcriptional regulation by signaling and how gene regulatory networks define cell potency and fate in development and differentiation. We focus principally on pluripotent stem cells and their differentiation to various types of endoderm as a model system, both embryonic and extra-embryonic. Our recent work points to new paradigms for how transcription factors regulate enhancer potential and interpret signaling, including the finding that response to MAP kinase (ERK) signaling, plasticity and regeneration in early development is dependent on transcription factor occupancy. This project will explore how enhancers are activated in response to ERK signaling, understanding the molecular basis for enhancer activity by exploiting signaling models and understanding how enhancer status safeguards early developmental potential in several different model systems.

Job description
We are looking for positions that will focus on different aspects enhancer function and regulation, the interface with signaling and how they are influenced by the cell cycle. As a post doc in the Brickman lab, you will be working in a field of stem cell and molecular biology. You will be part of an international interdisciplinary team of scientists focusing on understanding enhancer regulation, gene regulatory networks and exploiting these networks to develop new technologies for cell type specification in vitro. We work with in vivo and in vitro systems in both mouse and human. For this project, you will work with either mouse embryos, mouse, and human embryonic stem cell (ESCs), human Ventral Foregut stem cells, human hypoblast stem cells and three-dimensional synthetic models for human and mouse development.

Select Recent References:

Linneberg-Agerholm M, Sell AC, Redo-Riveiro A, Proks M, Knudsen TE, Perera M, and Brickman JM. Joshua M. Brickman. Enhancer status in the primitive endoderm supports unrestricted lineage plasticity in regulative development. bioRxiv 2023.05.20.540779; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.20.540779

Redó-Riveiro A, Al-Mousawi J, Linneberg-Agerholm M, Proks M, Perera M, Salehin N, Brickman JM. Transcription factor co-expression mediates lineage priming for embryonic and extra-embryonic differentiation. Stem Cell Reports. 2024 Feb 13;19(2):174-186. doi: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2023.12.002.

Wenger A, Biran A, Alcaraz N, Redó-Riveiro A, Sell AC, Krautz R, Flury V, Reverón-Gómez N, Solis-Mezarino V, Völker-Albert M, Imhof A, Andersson R, Brickman JM, Groth A. Symmetric inheritance of parental histones governs epigenome maintenance and embryonic stem cell identity. Nat Genet. 2023

Sep;55(9):1567-1578. doi: 10.1038/s41588-023-01476-x.

Knudsen TE, Hamilton WB, Proks M, Lykkegaard M, Linneberg-Agerholm M, Nielsen AV, Perera M, Malzard LL, Trusina A, Brickman JM. A bipartite function of ESRRB can integrate signaling over time to balance self-renewal and differentiation. Cell Syst. 2023 Sep 20;14(9):788-805.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.cels.2023.07.008.

Wong YF, Kumar Y, Proks M, Herrera JAR, Rothová MM, Monteiro RS, Pozzi S, Jennings RE, Hanley NA, Bickmore WA, Brickman JM. Expansion of ventral foregut is linked to changes in the enhancer landscape for organ-specific differentiation. Nat Cell Biol. 2023 Mar;25(3):481-492. doi: 10.1038/s41556-022-01075-8.

Hamilton, W.B., Mosesson, Y., Monteiro, R.S., Emdal, K.B., Knudsen, T.E., Francavilla, C., Barkai, N., Olsen, J.V., and Brickman, J.M. (2019). Dynamic Lineage Priming is Driven via Direct Enhancer Regulation by ERK. Nature, 575, 355–360, doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1732-z.

Responsibilities

- To implement state of the art genomic and proteomic technologies to understand the basis of enhancer activity in early development and differentiation.

- To develop new approaches to identify enhancer specific co-factors involved in signaling response.

- To define regulatory networks and signaling response.

- To optimize new molecular and biochemical approaches to single locus and single molecule functional assays.

- Will be expected to be competitive for and write independent research fellowships.

Qualifications

- An equivalent of a PhD in Developmental, Stem Cell or Molecular Biology and/or Bioinformatics.

- Experience with next generation sequencing technologies, ChIP-seq, CUT&RUN, single cell RNA-seq etc.

- Experience with computational analysis of next generation sequencing datasets.

- Experience with embryonic stem cell culture.

- Experience with proteomics or phosphoproteomics.

- Molecular biology, western blots, RT-PCR etc.

- English communication skills, both oral and written are a must.

We offer

- A stimulating research environment and collaborative work with physicists from Niels Bohr Institute and hospital.

- Usage of state-of-the-art technologies for stem cell research.

·- Possibilities for continued education and training.

Place of employment

The place of employment is at Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine, reNEW, University of Copenhagen. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in dynamic and international research environment.

Terms of salary, work, and 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 starting date is 1 September 2024 or after agreement.

Salary, pension and other conditions of employment are set in accordance with the Agreement between the Ministry of Taxation and AC (Danish Confederation of Professional Associations) or other relevant organisation. The employer will pay an additional 17.1 % to your pension fund.

Foreign and Danish applicants may be eligible for tax reductions, if they hold a PhD degree and have not lived in Denmark the last 10 years.

The position is covered by the Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities 2020.

The application must include:

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page).

2. CV incl. education, work/research experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position.

3. A certified/signed copy of a) PhD certificate and b) Master of Science certificate. If the PhD is not completed, a written statement from the supervisor will do.

4. List of publications.

Deadline for applications: 1 July 2024, 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.

Questions:

For further information contact Professor Joshua Brickman [email protected]

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. 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 read about the recruitment process at http://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

The applicant 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 to apply.

Homepage

https://renew.ku.dk/research/reseach-groups/brickman-group/

We want to reflect the surrounding society and encourage all qualified persons, regardless of personal background, to apply for the position.

Kilde: Jobnet.dk