Professor Olga Martínez Augustin, from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2 at the University of Granada, welcomes postdoctoral candidates interested in applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) in 2024 at this University. Please note that applicants must comply with the Mobility Rule (for more information about the 2024 call, please consult this link.

Brief description of the institution:

The University of Granada (UGR), founded in 1531, is one of the largest and most important universities in Spain. With over 56,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and more than 6,000 members of staff, the UGR offers over 90 undergraduate degrees, 164 master’s degrees (8 of which are international double degrees) and 28 doctoral programmes via its 124 departments and nearly 50 centers. Accordingly, the UGR offers one of the most extensive and diverse ranges of higher education programmes in Spain.

The UGR has been awarded with the "Human Resources Excellence in Research (HRS4R)", which reflects the the institution’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 internationally renowned for its excellence in diverse research fields and ranked among the top Spanish universities in a variety of ranking criteria, such as national R&D projects, fellowships awarded, publications, and international funding.

The UGR is one of the few Spanish Universities listed in the Shanghai Top 500 ranking - Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). The 2023 edition of the ARWU places the UGR in 201-300th position in the world and as the 1-2 highest ranked University in Spain (http://sl.ugr.es/0dwJ), reaffirming its position as an institution at the forefront of national and international research. From the perspective of specialist areas in the ARWU rankings (http://sl.ugr.es/0bSp), the UGR is outstanding in Food Science & Technology (ranked in the 48th position in the world), Hospitality & Tourism Management (ranked between 51th-75th position), and in the areas of Mathematics and Library & Information Science, both of them ranked between 76th-100th position. A little lower in the ranking, the UGR also stands out in the areas of Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering and Nursing, in which the UGR is positioned at the rank in the 101-150th position. Finally, Dentistry & Oral Sciences is positioned between 151-200th position.

Additionally, the UGR counts with 9 researchers at the top of the Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) list, most of them related to the Computer Science scientific area. It is also well recognised for its web presence (http://sl.ugr.es/0a6i), being positioned at 76th place in the top 200 Universities in Europe.

Internationally, the University of Granada is firmly committed to its participation in the calls of the Framework Programme of the European Union. For the duration of the last Framework Programme, Horizon 2020, the UGR obtained a total of 121 projects with a total funding of around €29,4 million. For the current Framework Programme, Horizon Europe, the UGR has obtained 74 projects, so far, with a total funding of almost €20 million.

Brief description of the Centre/Research Group:

Our research group works in the field of pathophysiology (ion transport, alkaline phosphatase, inflammatory markers) and pharmacology (flavonoids, glycomacropeptide, oligosaccharides, bisphosphonates, corticosteroids) of inflammatory bowel disease and obesity/metabolic syndrome. Central to both is an alteration of the function of intestinal barrier, a fundamental element of intestinal homeostasis involved in inflammatory processes such as inflammatory bowel disease, but also many other intestinal and systemic diseases, including metabolic syndrome, acute pancreatitis, liver disease, sepsis, etc.

We use various cellular models, including intestinal organoids, and animal models, such as KO mice for the intestinal epithelial glucocorticoid receptor Nr3c1 (developed by our group), haplodeficient mice for tissue nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (Alpl), immunodeficient mice Zucker rats, etc. The experimental techniques used include molecular techniques, FACS, immunohistochemistry, gene silencing, studies of electrolytic transport, metagenomics of fecal microbiota, pharmacogenomics, etc.

We have received about 650,000 € in the last 5 years, coming mainly from competitive public projects but also from contracts with companies and projects financed by foundations. Our group is a member of the Center for Biomedical Research in the Liver and Digestive Diseases Network (CIBERehd), which brings together the most prestigious groups active in the research of gastroenterology in Spain. Our publications profile is available at https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=s2Tr97gAAAAJ.

Project description:

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOS), the gold standard of functional oligosaccharides, act as prebiotics, interact with the microbiota, contribute to intestinal barrier function (IBF) maturation and regulate the immune system. HMOS have not been available in high amounts to be tested in animal models until recently. We aim to decipher the molecular bases of the functionality of HMOS, particularly the relationship between HMOS and the IBF. We will provide the basis for the development of new, scientifically supported foods. We will use five newly synthesized HMOS, commercially available in large quantities, whose structure is idoneous for structure-activity studies (2’-fucosyllactose, lacto-N-tetraose, lacto-N-neotetraose, 6’-sialyllactose and 3’-sialyllactose). We have designed a set of experiments what will allow us to ascertain prebiotic and non-prebiotic effects of HMOS. We propose in vitro experiments using state of the art technologies including ‘omics’ (conventional and single cell RNAseq and metagenomic analyses) and 3D tissue cultures (human intestinal organoids). Regulation of gene expression by HMOS in duodenum and colon human organoids will be assessed. In the case of colon organoids homogenates of HMOS fermented with feces of healthy children and children with inflammatory bowel disease and with food allergy will be studied. An ex vivo lymphocyte transformation test with peripheral blood mononuclear cells of food allergy patients has also been designed. Finally, we propose the use of germ-free mice and preclinical mouse models of sepsis and colitis. The results derived from our experiments will be integrated to characterize the mechanism of action of HMOS and their structure-activity relationship, as well as to design an HMOS formula that will also be tested.

Research Area:

☒ Life Sciences (LIFE)

For a correct evaluation of your candidature, please send the documents below to Professor Olga Martínez Augustin (omartine@ugr.es@ugr.es): 

• CV
• Letter of recommendation (optional)