The Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) is interested in hosting a postdoctoral fellow within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship programme. 

         Please note that this opportunity is not a funded positions (yet); it depend on

         1. The organization selecting you for continuing the process and

         2. A successful proposal written mostly by you (with some input from your host organization           in Luxembourg) and submitted before September 9th 2020.

Project idea: 

UTILE (useful tools to assess emerging risk factors of cardiometabolic abnormalities):

Background: Obesity is a public health concern worldwide due to the rising prevalence and associated health condition, including in particular cardiometabolic comorbidities.

In most published studies, oxidative stress (OS) increase and low antioxidant status (AS) were highlighted as emerging risk factors of developing obesity related morbi-mortality. Nevertheless, recent evidence suggested that obesity might not necessarily be associated with any cardiometabolic health issue. Contrarily, having a normal weight does not guarantee a good cardiometabolic health. This emphasizes the importance of understanding the mechanisms behind the development of the metabolic abnormalities for each weight category. It is also important to provide easy to-use tools to assess these emerging risk factors (OS, AS), as they are currently lacking.

Objectives: The project UTILE aims:

1. To investigate the relationship between metabolic abnormalities, oxidative stress increase and low antioxidant status, independently of the weight status.
   
   OS will be measured by accessible markers such as particular F2-isoprostanes. Antioxidant status will be assessed by their circulating levels in plasma.
2. To develop innovative easy-to-use, inexpensive and accurate assessment tools of these emerging risk factors. These tools will consist of derived indices of OS and dietary derived indices of AS. These new useful tools developed within the frame of the proposed project might be used, in the future, as a substitute for the best-accepted but expensive laboratory/biological techniques, in order to well manage cardiometabolic health.

These newly developed tools will be useful at several levels:

• For clinicians, as tool kits, aiding to assess emerging risk factors of cardiometabolic issues in order to improve the decision-making processes and patient outcomes, especially as the international research and medical communities are calling for a personalized medicine approach to cardiometabolic health, for all weight categories;
• By means of these new tools, public health stakeholders will have the opportunity to conduct cardiometabolic-health campaigns inexpensively;
• Researchers should benefit from these tools to conduct future research projects at affordable cost.

We leave some flexibility to the candidates` own ideas, in order to further develop the research project in collaboration with the NutriHealth Team.

Offer Requirements

The position will be for 2 years. A post-doctoral candidate with a background/education in nutrition, biochemistry or molecular chemistry or equivalent, with solid skills in statistics.

The candidate will work with a focus on the translational aspects of the project, mainly developing and/or optimizing the targeted dietary indices intended to replace biological measurements of oxidative stress/inflammation and antioxidants. This person will also be involved in laboratory analyses regarding oxidative stress/inflammation/ antioxidants, as well as in the statistical analysis and interpretation of the study. Thus, the person should have hands-on experience regarding laboratory analysis of oxidative stress, antioxidants and/or inflammation, and a focus on questionnaires estimating these aspects, paired with a biochemical or molecular chemistry background or equivalent. In-depth experience regarding epidemiology and public health paired with statistical evaluation of data and models are crucial. A very good knowledge in English (oral and written) is a prerequisite. German or French languages are assets.

Institute description: 

The Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) has a total staff of around 400 employees, including those at the IBBL (International Bio-Bank Luxembourg).

Within the Department of Population Health (DoPH) of the LIH, the Nutrition and Health (NutriHealth) Team around Dr. Torsten Bohn with presently 5 persons aims to investigate human dietary habits and nutritional exposure, modelling the diet-disease relationship and translating their findings into the practice of activities to prevent and control chronic diseases at the population level. In particular, the NutriHealth group is investigating several aspects related to food quality regarding nutrient and non-nutrient composition including micronutrients, their bioavailability and their relationship to oxidative stress and cardiometabolic diseases.

Benefits

The NutriHealth team is specialized in nutrition, oxidative stress, antioxidants and tools development areas, with clinical applications of their findings.

Dr. Torsten Bohn (PhD, nutritionist, in charge of the micro-nutrient and oxidative stress aspects) and Dr. Hanen Samouda (PhD, clinical anthropologist, in charge of the obesity, cardiometabolic health, and tools development aspects) have developed this project in the frame of the NutriHealth group activities.

Dr. Frédéric Dadoun (MD, PhD, endocrinologist-diabetologist, head of the gastro-entero-nephrologieendocrinology department, Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg) has closely collaborated toward the development of this project. He is bringing his expertise in the field of cardiometabolic health, obesity and clinical nutrition.

In addition, the LIH places strong emphasis on training and developing complementary, transferrable skills such as proposal writing or research management; we have the necessary skills and resources to guide and support candidates in their research, but we will also support the candidate in building his/her own network through encouraging attendance at conferences and workshops and by introducing him/her to the relevant networks our team is currently being part of.

A competitive salary will be offered to work in this multinational, multi-disciplinary environment.

About Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship:

The MSCA IF are postdoctoral fellowships, financed through the European Commission for 2 year positions, covering salary and research costs of the researchers, who can come from anywhere in the world. The evaluation process of these programmes is more about the project and the career development of the candidate, than his/her publication record. The organizations in Luxembourg that want to host such talented researchers include large public research organizations as well as private companies that offer interesting job perspectives after completion of the fellowship.

Minimal eligibility criteria

• Individual: applicant applies together with host institute
• PhD at the deadline or Masters plus 4 years of full time equivalent research experience
• Not working or living in Luxembourg for longer than 12 months before the call deadline
• For rules see here or contact your NCP

How to apply

Please submit your CV to Charles Betz, Advisor - European R&D and Innovation Support at Luxinnovation, until May 15th 2020 and refer to which position(s) you are applying for; you can also send several finetuned CVs if you are interested in multiple positions. Make sure you address the text and requirements mentioned by the respective hosts. 

Please note that applications are made through Luxinnovation, your contact point for Horizon 2020 in Luxembourg, before being handed over to the host company.

Luxinnovation, the Luxembourgish Innovation agency and National Contact Point for MSCA, will support both you and your future host institute during your application phase. For all applicants coming to Luxembourg we offer guidance documents, webinars, training in proposal writing and we will review your proposals if you wish so (depending on our availability). In 2019, MSCA IF proposals from Luxembourg had an average success rate of 28.5%, and proposals reviewed by our service 42%.

More information can be found on our website.

Keywords

• Epidemiology,
• cardiometabolic health,
• oxidative stress,
• antioxidant status,
• inflammation,
• ectopic fat,
• obesity.

Research in Luxembourg 

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