PhD in Molecular Biology

The research group of Laurencikiene is situated at Neo a hub for basic and clinical research as well as education and belongs to the division of Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, Huddinge. Our research focuses on the function of adipose tissue immune cells and their role in obesity related complications such as insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. In addition, we are interested in how signals coming from immune cells are influencing healthy vs unhealthy adipose tissue expansion and how sex differences influence these processes. This doctoral project will focus on characterization of adipose tissue immune cell populations and their secreted factors under different metabolic conditions. We will investigate their functional importance in healthy versus unhealthy adipose tissue expansion and how these processes are affected by sex hormones. The doctoral student will use a variety of methodologies such as multi-color flow cytometry, RNA-seq, multiplex secretion analysis, high throughput cell phenotype screening, in vitro cultures of WAT-resident cells as well as standard molecular biology techniques to functionally characterize the interaction between immune and metabolic cells in human fat tissue.