We invite applicants for a four-year position as a PhD research fellow at the Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Oslo. The position is associated with the interdisciplinary project: «Decoding addiction», funded by a UiO Life Science grant. 

The candidate would join the “Project knockout” team and conduct laboratory testing of pain, reward, and stress in a newly discovered human genetic knockout model population. Data analysis of large-scale registry data comparing mutation carriers to non-carriers is also part of the project, which aims to generate novel insights into human endogenous opioid function.

The project studies how Opioid analgesics are powerful medical tools with the potential to cause terrible side effects. Because their effects are so variable across individuals and contexts, many key debates remain unsettled in the field. Improved understanding of endogenous opioid functions in the healthy human brain is urgently needed. 

While it is well known that opioid drugs interfere with the many functions endogenous opioids serve throughout the brain and body, current understanding relies too heavily on extrapolation from rodent studies and non-specific pharmacology in humans. Notably, genetically engineered ‘knockout’ mice that lack the mu-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) have revealed the opioid-dependence of e.g. pain and stress regulation. Moreover, an OPRM1 genetic dose response was found for reward by comparing knockouts to heterozygous knockdown mice with few mu-opioid receptors. The project centers on a newly discovered human OPRM1 knockout/knockdown model to probe human endogenous opioid function with a precision far exceeding existing antagonist studies in the field. 

For more information and how to apply: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/301774/phd-fellowship