PhD Student Position in Bioinformatics of the Brain Barriers at the Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern Urgent hiring

PhD Student Position in Bioinformatics of the Brain Barriers at the Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern

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In the group of Prof. Britta Engelhardt, there is an opening for a qualified and highly motivated student to pursue a PhD thesis in bioinformatics in the field of brain barriers research.

The PhD project is embedded in the ERC Advanced Grant project “CNS immune privilege” financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation with the overarching goal to achieve an integrated view on how the brain barriers orchestrate CNS immune privilege. The PhD student will be co-supervised by PD Dr. Rémy Bruggmann (Interfaculty Bioinformatics Unit, University of Bern and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics) and will be pursued in collaboration with Profs. Michael Vanlandewijck and Christer Betsholtz (Karolinska Institute, Stockholm and University of Uppsala, Sweden).

Tasks

Making use of novel brain barrier reporter mice developed in our lab, the advertised PhD project will focus on establishing a complete landscape of all brain barriers during health and T-cell mediated autoimmune neuroinflammation in mouse models by employing single cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq). This PhD project will identify the molecular underpinnings of barrier function and dysfunction in the CNS during health and neuroinflammation.

Requirements

The successful candidate has preferentially a master’s degree in bioinformatics or alternatively a master’s degree in life sciences or engineering and coding experience. The candidate is expected to have a dedicated interest in neuroscience and brain barriers research combined with a high motivation in pursuing an interdisciplinary and team-oriented research effort.

We offer

The position is available from January 1st, 2026. The TKI offers an international state-of-the-art laboratory environment. The PhD student will be enrolled in the Interfaculty Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Bern (www.gcb.unibe.ch). Excellent training possibilities will additionally be available through the Data Science Lab of the University of Bern (https://www.dsl.unibe.ch), the Swiss Institute of bioinformatics (https://www.sib.swiss). and the opportunity to pursue part of the thesis work in the laboratories of our collaborators in Sweden.

Application

Applications including a CV, information on educational background and experience, a meaningful motivation letter and 2 references should be sent latest by September 5th, 2025 to sekretariat.tki@unibe.ch

Prof. Britta Engelhardt, Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern,
Freiestrasse. 1, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
E-Mail:sekretariat.tki@unibe.ch, Homepage: https://www.tki.unibe.ch