We are looking for a highly qualified and motivated PhD candidate to conduct research activities aimed at unravelling the role of the microbiome in the context of depression. This project has been funded by ZonMW. 

Depressive disorders affect approximately 322 million people worldwide and are the leading cause of disability globally, impacting nearly every aspect of daily life. Despite the availability of effective treatments, the overall burden of depression has not decreased in recent decades. Emerging evidence points to a potential link between depression and the gut microbiome - the vast and diverse community of micro organisms living in the human digestive tract.

This PhD project aims to investigate specific bacterial taxa, their metabolic products, and their interactions in relation to depressive symptoms. Using large-scale, multi-omics, and multi-cohort data, the goal is to generate both causal and temporal insights into the microbiome–depression connection.

The project is part of Guts to Beat Depression!, a ZonMw Open Competition-funded collaboration between the University of Amsterdam (UvA), Amsterdam UMC and Erasmus MC. The overarching objective is to identify (the role of a second PhD candidate) and validate (your role) microbial targets for the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of depression. 

What are you going to do?
Your work will focus on validating the most promising taxa (identified by the other project partners) and related products by proof of concept intervention for depression in a unique combination of human in vitro models of the gut (GuMI model) and of the brain (brain organoids), and in preclinical in vivo models (mouse). This innovative approach will maximize the likelihood of identifying high quality preclinical targets for further validation in human trials.

The position is embedded within The Brain Plasticity Group in the team of dr. Aniko Korosi at the Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam (UvA). This is a collaborative project with dr. Anja Lok, Psychiatrist at the Amsterdam University Medical Center, location AUMC, who will ensure the translational aspects and the direct communication with the human population based microbiome analyses, Dr. Frank Jacobs (Molecular Neuroscience group at the Swammerdam Institute) with whom the brain organoid part of the work will be performed, dr Jianbo Zhang and Prof Stanley Brul (Molecular Biology and Microbial Food Safety group at the Swammerdam Institute) with whom the human gut model part of the work will be performed. 

Tasks and responsibilities: 

• complete and defend a PhD thesis within the official appointment duration of four years;
• gain knowledge of the field through literature survey, discussion with team members, and internal lab meetings;
• contribute to the design of experiments and perform experiments in the lab;
• perform preclinical mouse in vivo and in vitro experiments;
• analyse and interpret results of the experiments;
• take a leading role in writing manuscripts;
• be an active member of the research teams at both the Swammerdam Institute and AMC and present your results at (inter)national scientific meetings;
• participate in the Faculty of Science PhD training programme;
• assist in teaching Bachelor and Master’s students;
• co-supervise junior scientists (technicians, MSc/BSc students). 

What do you have to offer?
You are excited about science and have a particular interest in and preferably have knowledge of gut brain axis and depression. You like a challenge and you are not afraid of combining work on preclinical mouse models with in vitro models. You have good statistical skills and experience with analysing big data (e.g. microbiome 16s rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, metagenomics, RNA-seq). You like to work in diverse settings as you have to communicate closely with a diverse team (i.e. neuroscientists, psychiatrist, microbiologists, data analyst). You are a team player and a nice colleague who enjoys being part of an interdisciplinary team of scientists. Finally, you have good time management skills enabling you to meet the projects’ deadlines for finishing analyses, reports and other deliverables.
Your experience and profile  
You have/are:

• a MSc degree in Biology, Neuroscience/ (neuro-)immunology, microbiology or related fields; 
• preferably experience with big data and omics analyses and coding (e.g. python, R);
• affinity and experience with performing animal experiments;
• affinity and experience with in vitro models (e.g. brain or gut organoids); 
• experience with classical biological methods (e.g. dissections, immunohistochemistry, western blot, PCR, in vitro assays, cell type sorting);
• good project and time management skills enabling you to meet the projects’ deadlines for finishing analyses, reports and other deliverables;  
• good analytical, writing and presenting skills;  
• fluent in English, both written and spoken and the willingness to learn Dutch (in case not Dutch native speaker).
• it is a plus if you have experience with gut-brain research.

Our offer
A temporary contract for 38 hours per week for the duration of 4 years (the initial contract will be for a period of 18 months and after satisfactory evaluation it will be extended for a total duration of 4 years). The preferred starting date is 1 September 2025. This should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). We will draft an educational plan that includes attendance of courses and (international) meetings. We also expect you to assist in teaching undergraduates and master students.

Based on a full-time appointment (38 hours per week) the gross monthly salary will range from €2.901 in the first year to €3.707 (scale P) in the last year. This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% year-end allowance. The UFO profile PhD candidate applicable. The Collective Labour Agreement of Universities of the Netherlands is applicable.

Besides the salary and a vibrant and challenging environment at Science Park we offer you multiple fringe benefits:

• 232 holiday hours per year (based on fulltime);
• multiple courses to follow from our Teaching and Learning Centre;
• a complete educational program for PhD students;
• a pension at ABP for which UvA pays two third part of the contribution;
• the possibility to follow courses to learn Dutch;
• help with housing for a studio or small apartment when you’re moving from abroad. 

Are you curious to read more about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits, take a look here.