PhD Position in Understanding Cellular Mechanisms Driving Traumatic Brain Injury-Associated Dementia

About this position

Are you passionate about uncovering what happens to the brain during impact, subsequent injury, and how the injury evolves, or resolves, afterwards? Then we are inviting you to join our interdisciplinary research teams to explore the long-term effects of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury (rmTBI) in both humans and mouse models.

Join Us!

Repeated mild head injuries, the kind sustained by athletes, veterans, and victims of domestic violence, are increasingly linked to long-term memory problems and a higher risk of dementia later in life. Strikingly, these lasting effects can occur even when no visible brain damage is present. Yet, we still don't understand how repeated injury leads to memory decline, and there are currently no treatments that address these long-term cognitive consequences.

In this project, our main goal is to dissect the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying traumatic brain injury (TBI)-associated neurodegeneration, memory decline and dementia. To this end we will study how rmTBI triggers long-term neuroinflammation and cellular and functional changes in the hippocampus, leading to memory impairment, as TBI may weaken the brain’s resilience, accelerating hippocampus-related memory decline.

This project is a collaboration between the Fitzsimons lab at the Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Salta lab at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN). The complementary expertise and conceptual understanding of brain insult models, specifically TBI mouse models, transcriptomics, detailed analysis of cell morphology, advanced microscopy techniques, neurodegenerative diseases, adult neurogenesis analysis in human brain samples and human iPSC culture and derivation, establish an ideal conceptual and technical synergy, making our team very well-suited to identify disease mechanisms involved in neurodegenerative diseases associated with repetitive TBI.

This project is funded by the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), Open Competition Domain Science – M2 grant and will be performed at the Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam. It is a follow up of our previous published work on traumatic brain injury and adult hippocampal neurogenesis:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-49299-6

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-022-01208-z

https://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909(26)00142-6?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1934590926001426%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

https://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909(26)00037-8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1934590926000378%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

We welcome applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.

This is what you will do

As a PhD candidate in our group, you will characterize the short- and long-term effects of rmTBI on the fate of resident neural stem cells in the hippocampus, including neurogenesis, astrogliogenesis, reactive astrogliosis, production of inflammatory mediators and, microglia activation, hippocampal function and memory impairment in a mouse model of repetitive TBI. Moreover, you will contribute to the identification of conserved cell populations, transcriptional programs and intercellular communication networks affected by TBI in the mouse and human hippocampus.

For this, you will use an established mouse model of closed head rmTBI in combination with single-nucleus/spatial transcriptomics, cellular morphology, electrophysiology, behavioural testing, and molecular assays to identify mechanisms linking rmTBI to persistent hippocampal dysfunction and neuroinflammation. All the necessary techniques, expertise and training opportunities are available in our labs.

• Tasks and responsibilities:
• complete a PhD thesis within the official appointment duration (four years);
• systematically and independently designing, performing and documenting experiments;
• setting up and running bioinformatic pipelines to complement experimental work;
• be an active and responsible member of both our research groups and discuss work with group members during departmental meetings and incorporate their feedback;
• taking a leading role in writing manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals;
• participating in PhD training programme of the University of Amsterdam and The Graduate School Neurosciences Amsterdam Rotterdam (ONWAR);
• assist teaching and supervision of Bachelor and Master students at the UvA.

You will get the opportunity to:

present results at (inter)national scientific conferences;

expand your academic, professional and personal skills;

contribute to science communication and outreach activities;

thrive in a team that values impactful research and mutual support;

combine the advantages that a collaborative project offers, such as access to state-of-the art research facilities at both the Swammerdam Institute, and to those at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience.

What we ask of you

Your experience and profile:

a master’s degree in biomedical sciences with a neuroscience specialization or similar;

a strong affinity and hands-on experience with experimental work with laboratory animals and/or molecular and cellular biology. Having an Article 9 certificate to work with laboratory animals is a pre-requisite;

a strong (proven) interest in bioinformatics analysis of complex datasets

fluent in English, both written and spoken.

You are dedicated, accurate, stress-resistant, a pleasant colleague, well organized and prepared to, and capable of working at 2 different locations.

This is what we offer you

We 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 January 2027