Phenotypic heterogeneity of myelodysplastic cells and influence of epigenetic therapies.

The PhD candidate will report, for the first time at the single cell level, the evolution of the transcriptome of leukaemic and nonleukaemic cells upon treatment with hypomethylating agents and IDH inhibitors. This will allow them to compare for the first time the channelling of genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity driven by different epigenetic therapies.

Host: Institut national de la sante et de la recherche medicale (INSERM), France.

Supervisors: Alex Puissant and Raphael Itzykson (https://gencelldis.fr/a-puissant-team/)

Envisioned secondments: GenomeScan B.V. (The Netherlands, 2 months), University of Bergen (Norway, 2 months).

About the INTERCEPT-MDS network

 The INTERCEPT-MDS network will train Europe’s first experts in the novel field of disease interception. Through an international call and open recruitment procedure, we will recruit 12 PhD candidates to carry out specific projects under the supervision of a Principal Investigator within one of the 10 world-leading European host institutions from the network. Our future fellows will be enrolled in a PhD programme and will receive an outstanding and tailored training designed specifically for them. In addition to the training offered by the university, supervisors and host institutions, the PhD candidates will also carry out secondments in other European institutions within the network to provide the needed interactions to achieve research and training excellence, and improve the future career perspectives of our PhD fellows. The embedding within the INTERCEPT-MDS network’s experts and experienced trainers from two sectors (academia and industry) and two research environments (clinical and basic) offers a unique multidisciplinary and multisectoral training opportunity in the emerging field of disease interception within the health sciences. Offer Description The Innovative Training Network (ITN) “INTERCEPT-MDS - Exploring cell-to-cell heterogeneity and exploiting epigenetic regulation for the interception of myeloid disease cells" is recruiting 12 highly motivated PhD candidates. The offered positions are available with a duration of 36 months. The fellowships are funded as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Innovative Training Networks under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme. MARIE CURIE GRANT AGREEMENT NUMBER: 953407.

Scientific project Disease interception is a novel concept referring to the treatment of a disease before it fully develops by removing altered cells. To make disease cell interception a reality, researchers need to overcome two key challenges: First, to identify a few altered disease cells among many healthy ones. Second, the development of strategies that allow the specific targeting of malignant cells without affecting healthy cells. INTERCEPT-MDS will approach these challenges using myeloid diseases as a suitable paradigm for clonally evolving diseases and several innovative research tools, aiming at improving the diagnostics and treatment of haematological malignancies and other cancers. The highly complementary composition of the INTERCEPT-MDS network will provide all the key expertise and infrastructure to support the scientific excellence of our PhD candidates, and the transfer of knowledge is guaranteed through shared training.

Application and selection process

The application will be done through an online application platform to be found on the INTERCEPT-MDS website: www.intercept-mds.eu