If you want to pursue a Ph.D. degree within the neuroscience research field, DANDRITE offers eminent opportunities. Ph.D. positions at DANDRITE are advertised through general open calls with application deadlines four times every year in February, May, August/September, and November.
Please note that potential candidates, who would like to apply for a Ph.D. position at DANDRITE, must contact a relevant Group Leader to prepare for a joint application, except for project-specific calls with open applications.
Ph.D. students at DANDRITE will be enrolled in the Ph.D. degree programme for Molecular Medicine, an interdisciplinary Ph.D. degree programme at Aarhus University (PDF) that is mutually organized by the Graduate School of Natural Sciences and the Graduate School of Health. The courses included in the degree can be put together from a wide variety of subjects in neuroscience, molecular medicine, bioinformatics, biophysics and, molecular and structural biology.
DANDRITE Ph.D. students are under the supervision of at least one of the current 4 Group leaders or 2 Team Leaders at DANDRITE. The research groups at DANDRITE cover a broad range of neurosciences:
Group Leader Chao Sun's group investigates protein machines that manage the molecular logistics of brain synapses using quantitative spatial proteomics approaches. They are particularly interested in protein machines that manage the molecular logistics of synapses, e.g. the protein synthesis and degradation machines, the transport machinery for ions, nutrients, and neurotransmitters, and the machinery involved in lipid and energy consumption.
Group Leader Taro Kitazawa's group is focusing on the molecular basis of neuroplasticity, especially at the levels of epigenetic and transcriptional mechanisms underlying memory engram plasticity using mice as a model organism.
Group Leader Thomas Kim's group focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling microglial subtypes in neurodegenerative disorders and evaluating potential approaches to target these microglia as therapeutic interventions and as biomarkers.
Group Leader Anna Mathia Klawonn's group evolves around deciphering the neural circuits and immune-to-brain signaling mechanisms involved in regulating affective state during disease. For this we are exploring the function of several brain circuits and neural populations (such as microglia and astrocytes); and are specialized in striato-nigral and mesolimbic connectivity.
Team Leader, Gilles Vanwalleghem Lab's overarching goal is to understand how dysregulation of the bidirectional communication between the gut microbiome and the nervous system can affect behavior and lead to mental health disorders.
Team Leader, Tomonori Takeuchi's group has an overall research goal to understand how memories of everyday events, initially stored in the hippocampus, are ‘selected’ and then ‘assimilated’ into a relevant knowledge structure, called schema, in the neocortex.
Senior Group Leader Poul Henning Jensen's group wants to understand how neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body dementia, and multiple systems atrophy develop, progress, and elicit their many symptoms. The studies are centered on how the protein alpha-synuclein contributes to these processes. This is investigated in studies of alpha-synuclein aggregates in vitro, in cell models, cultures brain slices, live animals, and human tissue and involves the development of new tools and models.
Senior Group Leader Anders Nykjær's lab wants to understand the group of type-1 receptors denoted the Vps10p-domain family and their functions in the healthy brain, dissect their mode of action, investigate how genetic variation contributes to disease development - in particular of neuropsychiatric disorders and memory impairment.
DANDRITE is an interdisciplinary research center of neuroscience at Aarhus University that combines molecular and circuitry neuroscience with animal models and translational neuroscience. The aim is to investigate the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying behavior and sensory functions, and to reveal pathophysiological mechanisms and new intervention strategies of neurological, neurodegenerative, and psychiatric disorders. The research integrates technologies spanning from biochemistry, structural biology, and cryoEM to advanced imaging, neuronal circuitry mapping, behavioral models in fruit fly and mouse, and stem cell applications.
DANDRITE encompasses a thriving, international research community with many PhD students and postdocs and with well-established research infrastructure and support at Aarhus University and within the NeuroCampus Aarhus community shared with the Aarhus University Hospital.
