Biologist (PhD Position) - Developmental Toxicology and Functional Genomics | Biologe (m/w/d)

Job Summary

This fully funded PhD position at the IUF Leibniz Research Institute focuses on environmental adaptation and cellular resilience, specifically investigating how environmental factors affect human health via environmentally induced aging and disease processes. The successful candidate will be embedded in a DFG-funded project mapping human epiblast-like vulnerability during germ-layer formation for developmental toxicology. Day-to-day work involves differentiating human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), combining them with pooled, genome-wide CRISPR screens to identify essential genes for germ layer specification, and validating the resulting vulnerability maps using developmental toxicants. This role requires strong expertise in stem cell biology, advanced molecular biology techniques, and cell culture, offering a unique opportunity to bridge developmental biology, functional genomics, and environmental toxicology to create next-generation risk assessment strategies.