University of Copenhagen Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology is offering a three-year PhD fellowship inexocytosis mechanisms of insulin release. The PhD fellowship begins on 15 March 2017 or as soon as possible thereafter.
The project will use electrophysiological (patch-clamp), optical and optogenetic tools to investigate the nature of insulin release, which is known to take place in both faster and slower phases. You will participate in testing specific hypotheses about the nature of these phases. The different phases might occur because of different degrees of 'readiness' of vesicles that fuse along a single pathway, or because different parallel pathways exist, or - finally - because the release machinery can assemble with different stoichiometries to support fast and slow release.
To investigate these points, you will study the role of different SNARE-proteins, and synaptotagmins in the release process. You will use both isolated beta-cells and cell culture models, such as Ins-1 cells. The actual experiments to carry out will be decided together with the PhD-supervisor, and a research program will be submitted to the PhD-school. As part of the project, the PhD-student will travel to collaborating laboratories abroad.
**Job description
**
Your main tasks as a PhD student at SUND are to:
• Complete an independent research project under supervision
• Complete PhD courses or other equivalent educational activities corresponding to approx. 30 ECTS points
• Participate in active research environments including a stay with another research team
• Gain experience of teaching or other types of dissemination related to your PhD project
• Write a PhD thesis based on your project
Established in 1479, Københavns Universitet (University of Copenhagen) is a non-profit public higher education institution located in the urban setting of the large city of Copenhagen (population range of 1,000,000-5,000,000 inhabitants), Capital Region of Denmark. Officially accredited and/or recognized by the Uddannelses- og Forskningsministeriet (Ministry of Higher Education and Science, Denmark), Københavns Universitet (KU) is a very large (uniRank enrollment range: 35,000-39,999 students) coeducational higher education institution. Københavns Universitet (KU) offers courses and programs leading to officially recognized higher education degrees in several areas of study. See the uniRank degree levels and areas of study matrix below for further details. This 540 years old higher-education institution has a selective admission policy based on students' past academic record and grades. International applicants are eligible to apply for enrollment.