Select the region that best fits your location or preferences.
This setting controls the language of the user interface, including buttons, menus, and all site text. Select your preferred language for the best browsing experience.
Select the languages for job listings you want to see. This setting determines which job advertisements will be displayed to you.
Last application date Aug 01, 2025 00:00
Department GE38 - Department of Human Structure and Repair
Contract Limited duration
Degree Master degree in Bioscience engineering, Biochemistry & Biotechnology, Biomedical Sciences, Pharmaceutical Sciences or equivalent, completed before the start date of the position, with excellent grades.
Occupancy rate 100%
Vacancy type Research staff
The current PhD position is available for a highly motivated candidate to work within the research group of Prof. Olivier De Wever. The main aim of the PhD project is to address the fidelity of tumor models in cancer research. In this regard, the PhD student will apply state-of-the-art technologies to analyze the behaviour and therapy response of tumor models including the composition and characteristics of cancer cells and tumor microenvironment elements such as cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) and immune cells.
Tumor models include the use of three-dimensional cell aggregates (also named spheroids) (Peirsman&Blondeel et al. Nature Methods 2021), patient-derived tumor fragments (Vermeulen et al. Sci Rep 2024) and patient-derived orthotopic xenograft mouse models (Fischer et al. Clin Trans Med 2023). Patient-derived models are obtained from surplus tissues in full collaboration with our clinical partners. A living biobank of cancer cell cultures (https://www.crig.ugent.be/en/ghent-living-biobank-sarcoma-glb-s), CAF (Tommelein et al. Cancer Res 2018; Xia et al. Clin Trans Med 2024) and immune cells (Steenbrugge&Dejaeghere et al. Cancer Res 2021) is available to reconstitute the TME using heterocellular spheroids (DeJaeghere&Devlieghere et al. Biomaterials 2018). The De Wever lab is expert in the extensive evaluation of the impact of experimental parameters in tumor models (Peirsman&Blondeel et al. Nature Methods 2021; Fischer et al. STAR protocols 2024; DeThaye et al. Sci Rep 2020). This supporting ecosystem has steered the De Wever lab towards a leading position in the set-up and detailed evaluation of a diverse complementary set of tumor models.
You will work in very close interaction with partners from Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG, Ghent), Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB, Ghent) as well as (inter)national collaborating teams to enable multidisciplinary investigations.
We offer you:
If you are interested, please send the necessary documents to prof. dr. Olivier De Wever (olivier.dewever@ugent.be). Vacancy remains open until a talented candidate has been successfully recruited.
Necessary documents (in 1 pdf max 10 Mb):
For more information, please contact prof. dr. Olivier De Wever by e-mail.
As Ghent University maintains an equal opportunities and diversity policy, everyone is encouraged to apply for this position.
Ghent University is one of the top 100 universities in the Dutch language area, with more than 44,000 students and 15,000 staff members.
Visit the employer page