PhD Candidate: The Impact of Indoor Air Pollution on Lung Health in a Changing Climate

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Testo originale dell'annuncio (in inglese)

Welcome to Maastricht University! Do you want to contribute to healthier living environments and help uncover how climate change affects respiratory health? We are looking for a motivated PhD candidate to join the international CLEAR-IT consortium, where you will investigate how indoor air pollution contributes to the development of chronic lung diseases. PhD Candidate: Unravelling the Impact of Indoor Air Pollution on Lung Health in a Changing Climate Our goal: You contribute to a future where chronic lung diseases can be detected earlier and prevented more effectively. This position aims to generate new knowledge that supports healthier indoor environments in the face of climate change. Ultimately, your work will help reduce the global burden of respiratory disease. Your colleagues: You will be part of the international CLEAR-IT consortium, a multidisciplinary collaboration focused on understanding how indoor air pollution drives chronic lung diseases. In this role, you will be based at Maastricht University, where you will work closely together with the research group of Prof. Dr. Flemming Cassee (RIVM, Netherlands) and collaborate with our consortium partners in Dusseldorf (Germany) and Leicester (UK). The close collaboration with the RIVM might include a few short research stays at their institute in Bilthoven (Netherlands). Chronic lung diseases (CLDs) are among the leading causes of illness and death worldwide and place a major burden on patients, healthcare systems, and society. Many CLDs originate early in life but remain undetected for years, limiting opportunities for prevention and early intervention. Understanding how environmental exposures contribute to these diseases is therefore essential for developing new strategies for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. One of the most important environmental risk factors is the airborne exposome, which is the collection of all inhaled environmental exposures throughout life. Within this exposome, climate change is increasing the presence of so-called super pollutants in both outdoor and indoor environments. Although these pollutants are associated with poorer respiratory health, the biological mechanisms through which they damage the lungs remain largely unknown. In this PhD position you will work within the in vitro work package, where you will expose advanced human lung cell models to realistic mixtures of climate change-related super pollutants. Using state-of-the-art experimental approaches, you will investigate how these exposures affect lung biology and identify molecular mechanisms and biomarkers associated with disease development. Your findings will be integrated with clinical and in vivo data generated by consortium partners, providing a unique opportunity to contribute to translational research that bridges fundamental science and clinical application. Ultimately, your work will help improve the early detection, prevention, and diagnosis of chronic lung diseases caused by indoor air pollution in the context of climate change. This PhD position offers the opportunity to work in an international, interdisciplinary research environment, collaborate with leading experts in respiratory health and environmental sciences, and contribute to research with direct societal impact. What you do During this PhD project, you will carry out the following activities: Performing cellular experiments in the laboratory of our department, in close collaboration with that of the National Institute of Public Health and Environment (RIVM), to determine the response of advanced in vitro lung models to a variety of (mixtures of) super pollutants. Analyzing your laboratory data, including the performance of statistical tests, and drafting scientific publications based on your results. Presenting your results, as well as discussing future research activities within your project, during regular consortium meetings as well as at scientific congresses. Closely collaborating with the other