Laboratory of Human Disease Multiomics at MMRI PAS is seeking 2 undergraduate students for scientific scholarships in the NCN Opus Project “Oncogene competition - a new interplay mechanism of mutant p53 with CMYC and mutant KRAS in human cancers”.
The stipend is planned for maximum 2 years, starting Jaunary 1st 2025; each stipend - 2500 PLN gross/month. The project is multidisciplinary, biomedical, includes collaborations and will allow to learn and develop skills of open and flexible scientific approach.
Requirements:
- Being a student during of the final 3 years of the full-time M.Sc./M.D. university program in biology, biotechnology, biomedicine, medicine or a similar subject.
- Good command of English and basic practice in scientific writing/presentation of data in English.
- Basic knowledge of molecular biology techniques (e.g. qPCR, RNA handling, western blot etc.) and basic cell culture methods.
- Basic knowledge of handling 3D/organoid cultures.
- Possibility to work on site for a few hours a day on workdays in Warsaw, Poland for the 2 following years.
How to apply: Until 20th of December 2024 – please send the CV to dr Dawid Walerych: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Do not write a separate motivation letter – if you want to o justify your application, do so briefly in the e-mail in English.
The project: Among the universal driver oncogenes are mutated KRAS, hyperactive CMYC and mutated TP53, last of which upon acquiring missense mutations switches from a tumor suppressor to a potent driver oncogene. It has been shown by our group and in various other studies that these and other oncogenic drivers cooperate and complement one another to promote cell transformation and progression of neoplasias. In the same time it is a paradigm that this cooperation and ability of each driver oncogene to be decisive in oncogenesis is different dependent on the molecular background.
During an ongoing project our group has discovered in cancer cell lines that an important dimension of the molecular background is an “oncogene competition” phenomenon – when one oncogene is taking-over or inhibiting the activity of another oncogene which results in reshaping of molecular programs of both oncogenes.
This phenomenon has never been described before in cancer research and requires a large-scale and mechanism study using normal/cancer cell lines, cancer organoid cultures and in vivo validation in mice.
