¸£ÀûÔÚÏßÃâ·Ñ

  • LATEST

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship Candidate Wanted

  • In
  • 08:18, 01 Jul 2025

The envisaged 24-month Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions European Postdoctoral Fellowship project concerns the testing of germline predisposition for haematological malignancies in Cyprus (see the summary below), with experimental lead our haematologist Panayiota Papasavva (in CC). For this eponymous grant application, the qualified postdoctoral candidate interested in working at the CING would do so for the next two years.

Unusually, this grant application is mostly already written up, because there are plans to resubmit an existing application. In 2023 the original proposal written by Panayiota received the EU Seal of Excellence and was afterwards approved as an (eponymous) national grant in Cyprus, but when the candidate decided to embark on a teaching career instead, the project could not proceed to signatures and implementation after all.

The proposed research programme is still sorely needed in Cyprus, and a motivated individual is being sought for their timely input into the new proposal and with a CV, qualifications and skills that would support the submission.

European Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to researchers within 8 years of receiving their doctoral degree, of any nationality either coming to Europe from any country in the world or moving within Europe.

In line with mobility requirements for this grant, the candidate should have spent fewer than 12 months in Cyprus over the last three years.

For more details regarding the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship, including information on living, mobility, and family allowance, please refer to the MSCA Work Programme (from page 126).

Besides the topical nature of the project itself, the Molecular Genetics Thalassaemia Department and the Cyprus Institute of Neurology & Genetics provide a versatile work environment () as an exceptionally good research employer (), with state-of-the art infrastructure and scope also for academic teaching in our postgraduate course programme.

Testing of Germline Predisposition for Haematological Malignancies in Cyprus

Haematological malignancies (HM) are the fifth most prevalent group of cancers worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality in economically developed regions. These malignancies can be broadly categorised into two principal groups: lymphoid malignancies and myeloid malignancies. Previously deemed exceptionally rare, a plethora of germline predisposition syndromes/variants that confer an increased risk for HM has been revealed with the advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS). These syndromes/variants are now recognised as present in 10-15% of patients with myeloid malignancies (and in up to 30-40% of patients with myeloid malignancies referred to specialised centres for familial investigation), affecting not only children and young adults, but also elderly patients. Genetic predisposition for HM is therefore of critical clinical and economic importance, but like many other regions, Cyprus does not yet have a corresponding screening programme.

The current project wants to overcome this shortcoming and serve as a starting point for comprehensive screening of genetic predispositions for HM in Cyprus. Its primary objective is to investigate the germline predisposition to HM in the adult population by conducting full NGS-based testing of (a) patients/families exhibiting familial segregation of HM, (b) patients displaying specific characteristics suggestive of an underlying genetic predisposition, and (c) candidate related bone marrow transplant donors. The project will be based on cultured fibroblasts from patients with active disease, and peripheral blood from patients in remission or from healthy family members, and will combine short-read Illumina sequencing technology and long-read Oxford Nanopore sequencing technology for comprehensive discovery of predisposition variants.

The postdoctoral researcher envisioned for this project will collaborate with the project team to design a comprehensive research plan, which will include establishing selection criteria for patients/families with familial segregation of HM and those exhibiting specific characteristics indicative of genetic predisposition. This will involve reviewing relevant literature, identifying potential study participants, and formulating a structured approach for data collection and analysis. The postdoctoral researcher will also assume responsibility for the collection and processing of biological samples, such as skin biopsies and peripheral blood, as well as conducting NGS technology testing and analysing the resulting data. Throughout these tasks, the researcher will work closely with a skilled haematologist, who will provide guidance on general research design and planning, and collaborate with a diagnostics team experienced in NGS-based analyses, healthcare professionals, genetic counsellors, and specialised centres for patient recruitment with informed consent.

See More

Categories

© L-Università ta' Malta