Postdoctoral researcher in adipocyte mechanobiology Full-time

Postdoctoral Researcher In Adipocyte Mechanobiology

Are you curious why obesity leads to cardiometabolic disease, and want to contribute to elucidating the underlying disease mechanisms? We are a young, dynamic research group working translationally to understand how expansion of the human white adipose tissue leads to the emergence of cardiometabolic diseases, most notably insulin resistance and dyslipidaemia. As a part of a larger network of researchers in metabolism and cardiovascular disease, our lab aims to identify early molecular mechanisms driving disease initiation during obesity, with a particular focus on better understanding the source of adipocyte dysfunction.

Your Mission

The postdoctoral project is focused on studying adipocyte mechanobiology in health and disease focusing on functional changes in adipocyte biology in relation to hypertrophic growth and obesity. This will be done using our newly developed in vitro model of human unilocular adipocyte spheroids (Ioannidou et al, Physiology 2022; Maestri et al, JLR 2026). The project will also involve mechanobiology analyses of membrane composition and function and working together with national and international collaborators and colleagues in the lab on adjoining projects. Our overall aim is to understand the initiation of disease mechanisms within the human adipose tissue during weight gain and identify ways to prevent tissue dysfunction and inflammation by improving adipocyte lipid handling.

Your Profile

We are looking for a highly enthusiastic, creative and independent researcher with a recent PhD and a strong research background in experimental mechanobiology, preferentially documented with first-author research publications in high impact journals. Experience studying mechanobiology using techniques for mechanical tissue characterization (e.g. atomic force microscopy) is a must, as is previous experience with advanced microscopy and quantitative image analysis workflow. Applicants must have solid experience from genetic perturbation, cell transfection and mechanistic in vitro culture work and. She/he must be able to plan, perform, analyse and document independent experiments and communicate the results. Scientific expertise and an ambitious, driving and problem-solving attitude with an attention to detail are highly valued. Excellent communication skills in both spoken and written English are a must, as is the ability to work in a team and help out colleagues both experimentally and by discussing. As part of the postdoctoral training, the researcher will get opportunities to co-write grants and articles, supervise students, as well as career mentorship, providing an excellent basis for a further career in academia.

To be eligible for employment as a postdoctoral researcher, a PhD or a foreign degree deemed to be equivalent to a Swedish PhD is required. This eligibility requirement must be fulfilled at the latest at the time of the employment decision. Completion of your doctoral degree within the last three years is considered an advantage. If there are special reasons, your degree may have been completed earlier.

What Do We Offer?

A creative and inspiring environment with wide-ranging expertise and interests. Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. At Karolinska Institutet, we conduct successful medical research and hold the largest range of medical education in Sweden. At KI, you get to meet researchers working with a wide range of specialisms and methods, giving you ample opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience with the various scientific fields within medicine and health. It is the crossover collaborations, which have pushed KI to where it is today, at the forefront of global research. Several of the people you meet in healthcare are educated at KI. A close relationship with the health care providers is important for creating groundbreaking top quality education and research. Karolinska Institutet is also a state university, which entitles you to several benefits through our collective agreement.

Location

The position is located within the Department of Medicine, Solna. The department consists of ten divisions and each division consists of several research groups. The position is located within the research group headed by Associate Professor Carolina Hagberg in an international group consisting of 10 people, working as an integrated part of the larger Cardiovascular Theme that comprises around 100 persons active both in basic and translational research. Our lab is located in the brand-new research building BioClinicum at the heart of KI's Solna campus, with close proximity to both the clinics at the Karolinska Hospital and the research resources of Karolinska Institutet. We are also affiliated to the Centre for Molecular Medicine (CMM) that offer an excellent variety of core facilities and researcher support.

Application

An employment application must contain the following documents in English or Swedish:

• PhD certificate
• A complete resumé, including date of the thesis defence, title of the thesis, previous academic positions, academic title, current position, academic distinctions, and committee work
• A complete list of publications
• A summary of current work (no more than one page)

The application is to be submitted through the Varbi recruitment system.

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