Professor María Jesús Álvarez Cubero, from the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology III and Immunology at the University of Granada, welcomes postdoctoral candidates interested in applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) in 2020 at this University. Please note that applicants must comply with the Mobility Rule (more information: http://sl.ugr.es/0aNV).

Brief description of the institution:

The University of Granada (UGR), founded in 1531, is one of the largest and most important universities in Spain. The UGR has been awarded with the "Human Resources Excellence in Research (HRS4R)", which reflects the UGR’s commitment to continuously improve its human resource policies in line with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The UGR is also a leading institution in research, located in the top 5/10 of Spanish universities by a variety of ranking criteria, such as national R&D projects, fellowships awarded, publications, or international funding.

UGR is one of the few Spanish Universities listed in the Shanghai Top 500 ranking (http://sl.ugr.es/0aw0). The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) places the UGR in 268th position in the world and as the 4th highest ranked University in Spain, reaffirming its position as an institution at the forefront of national and international research. From the perspective of specialist areas in the ARWU rankings, the UGR is outstanding in Documentation (ranked in the 36th in the world) or Food science technology (ranked 37th in the world), Mathematics and Computer Science (ranked among the top 76-100 in the world).

The UGR has 4 researchers at the top of the Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) list in the Computer Science area. With regard to broader subject fields, the UGR is ranked in 45th position in the universities worldwide in the discipline of Engineering. It is also well recognized for its web presence (http://sl.ugr.es/0a6i) taking 36th place in the top 200 Universities in Europe. Internationally, we bet decidedly by our participation in the calls of the Framework Programme of the European Union. For the duration of the last two Framework Programmes, the UGR has obtained a total of 66 projects, with total funding of 18.02 million euros, and for H2020, 80 projects with total funding around 20.6 million euros.

Brief description of the Centre/Research Group

The candidate will be developed his/her research training in GENYO research center (Pfizer-University of Granada-Junta de Andalucía Centre for Genomics and Oncological Research). This center has been devised as a space for excellence research in genomic medicine, focusing on the comprehensive study and understanding of the genetic basis of human diseases in general, placing special emphasis on cancer and its genetic disorders related to inheritance. It is a multidisciplinary research space, where different professionals from the healthcare, university and business areas interact, making it possible to generate new systems to diagnose, prevent and treat diseases based on the joint and coordinated application of first-rate knowledge in the different areas of genetics.

Our group is focused in the search of non-invasive biomarkers in several diseases, mainly in cancer. Using innovative technologies of genomics, bioinformatics and molecular biology primarly focused on urological tumors such as prostate, renal and bladder cancers. Just having an efficient setting-up of these methodologies; and in urology field will mean an impact for scientific community and for clinicians. Nowadays, there are many types of cancer that have no efficient biomarkers for identifying and locating the disease, so this fact will open new strategies in tumors´ research… Moreover, our team has a strong bond with Urology Unit in Granada Hospital, so it is assured the diffusion of the data in clinical ambience; this will generate a high request for the research in this field in clinical and scientific communities; as well as industry and pharmaceutical enterprises.

Project description

The main idea intended to be achieved through this project is focused on the search for genetic variables in the treatment of prostate cancer (PC). The etiology and treatment metabolism in each patient plays an important role within the concept of precision medicine; which currently is one of the main tools used for the monitoring of patients, especially in cancer patients. The objective of precision medicine is to eliminate the current "one size fits all" model of patient management, adapting each treatment to the individual biology of the disease. This will allow us an earlier determination of the response to different treatments; indicating which will be more effective for each patient. Taking into account this background, we propose the present project based on precision medicine and combining the recent concept of pharmacogenomics suggesting a study in the genes of the metabolism and absorption of drugs routes described as therapy in PC. The main objective is to define specific molecular profiles of hormonal treatment response in PC, as well as to define its interrelationship of clinical pathologic characteristics of patients and their relation with overall survival and disease progression. The methodology involves the use of the most updated molecular biology, bioinformatic and next generation sequencing techniques; that ensures the valuable information and application derived from this project. That is why; the person that will be included in this project will be having training in the most updated methodologies and will assure an efficient insertion in current labor world. We want to include that this project is supported for three years (2019-2022) by Consejería de Salud-FIBAO code PI-0319-2018 and four years (2019-2024) by Consejería de Salud PE-0448-2019.

Research Area

Life Sciences (LIFE)

For a correct evaluation of your candidature, please send the documents below to Professor María Jesús Álvarez Cubero (mjesusac@ugr.es):

• CV
• Letter of recommendation (optional)