UiT The Arctic University of Norway has established «The Arctic MSCA-PF program» (uit.no/project/arcticmsca) to recruit excellent young researchers planning to apply for a Marie Skƚodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) to pursue a career in research. We invite applications from promising young researchers within the field of Medical Biology. The selected candidate will write a proposal for a 24-month MSCA-PF at UiT together with Associate Professor Vivian Hætta Berg. This is an opportunity to accelerate your research career while living in the urban research city of Tromsø, uniquely located at the top of the world surrounded by some of Europe’s last pristine wild nature.

This call is one of 70 from pre-selected supervisors at UiT The Arctic University of Norway through the “Arctic MSCA-PF program”. Successful postdoc candidates will be invited for a three-day MSCA-PF symposium June 4-6, 2024 (hybrid physical/digital event, see details at uit.no/project/arcticmsca/program-structure). At this event, the candidates will present their past research achievements, discuss future plans with their potential supervisor and learn how to write a successful MSCA-PF application. The selected candidates will, jointly with the supervisor, write the MSCA-PF application by the deadline of September 11, 2024.

In this call we search for talented, young researchers within the field of Medical Biology as presented by Associate Professor Berg:

Several Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have been classified as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) as they resemble natural hormones and have the potential to interfere with metabolic pathways, initiating the onset of metabolic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and fatty liver disease. A cumulative number of studies have linked background exposure to POPs to T2DM in humans, where some studies report significant associations between some POPs and T2DM, but a causal relationship between POPs and T2DM is not established, and the mechanisms by which POPs may influence T2DM development is yet to be identified. Our research projects have given us unique opportunities to assess early metabolic changes and evaluate the order in which metabolic disruption occurs before and after T2DM development. We are investigating the relationship between T2DM status and blood concentrations of lipids, diabetes markers and POPs in a longitudinal case-control study within the Tromsø study where we have up to five repeated measurements from the same individuals over a period of 30 years (15 years prior to T2DM diagnosis in cases, and 15 years after). In our previous publications we have observed that T2DM cases weigh more, have more unfavorable concentrations of lipids, thyroid- and steroid hormones, vitamin D and display different concentrations and changes in POP concentrations compared to healthy controls. These results warrant more investigations as similar studies are few to non.

Please send your CV (max 3 pages) and describe a research project that will strengthen and complement the presented research (max 2 pages) to vivian.berg@uit.no by Feb 16th 2024. Mark your application "Arctic MSCA". Successful candidates will be contacted in late March 2024.