Nencki Institute curries out the International PhD Studies co-funded by a grant from the prestigious European Union Marie Sklodowska-Curie COFUND program since October 2015. 22 foreign doctoral students have the opportunity to participate in research projects in biology and medicine conducted by the Nencki Institute in close collaboration with leading research centers in the world.

Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology in Warsaw has just started the third call for the applications for the international PhD studies. Young researchers from Poland and Europe will be able to actively participate in interdisciplinary work of 22 research teams involved in the studies of the biological causes of cancer, inflammation, metabolic disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. The studies, organized under the name of International Doctoral Programme in Biological Bases of Human Diseases, is funded by the grant Bio4Med (Biology for Medicine). The grant of over 2.5 million euro was awarded to the Nencki Institute under the European Union Marie Sklodowska-Curie COFUND Horizon 2020 financial perspective.

“Marie Curie grants are extremely hard to get. Of all the Polish scientific institutions this year only us and the National Science Centre succeeded in this matter. Our application has been assessed by the European Commission as a model one. Such a high evaluation appears to be one of the consequences of the fact that in 2013 the European Commission has awarded the Institute, as the first research unit in Poland, the prestigious HR Excellence in Research badge,” emphasizes Prof. Adam Szewczyk, Director of the Nencki Institute.

Candidates for doctoral studies at the Nencki Institute must be in the first four years of their research careers, and have resided or carried out their main activity in Poland for no more than 12 months in the past 3 years. The studies will enable young researchers to implement scientific projects in leading research teams of the Nencki Institute. These teams have established long lasting collaborations with partners from leading scientific institutions of the European Union, Switzerland, Japan, Canada, USA and Ukraine.

 “We intend to help young researchers in the development of their scientific careers. The best way is to improve their skills in the field of molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, physiology, behavioral studies and bioinformatics. At the same time we want to strengthen cooperation with our foreign partners, as our long-term goal is to increase the competitiveness of Polish science in Europe and the worldwide,” says Prof. Agnieszka Dobrzyn, Bio4Med Project Coordinator.

The research topics of the PhD program include such issues as the search for the molecular mechanisms affecting the brain glioma immune responses, identifying disorders of the cell cycle to enable early detection of Alzheimer’s disease, study of the effects of specific proteins on the regulation of alcohol addiction-related behaviors and the factors contributing to abnormal DNA damage repair pathways during the progression of diabetes.

In the course of the PhD studies at the Nencki Institute young researchers will have access to cutting-edge research equipment, including the magnetic resonance imaging scanner – the only one dedicated for research purposes in Poland – and a well-equipped light and electron microscopy units.

The previous edition of the international PhD studies at the Nencki Institute, funded by the Foundation for Polish Science under the MPD programme, was carried out in 2010-2014 and ended in December last year. Most of the 17 PhD students have received their doctoral degree and continue their scientific career in research centers in the country and abroad.

The Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences has been established in 1918 and is the largest non-university centre for biological research in Poland. Priority fields for the Institute include neurobiology, neurophysiology, cellular biology and biochemistry and molecular biology – at the level of complexity from tissue organisms through cellular organelles to proteins and genes. There are 31 labs at the Institute, among them modern Laboratory of Confocal Microscopy, Laboratory of Cytometry, Laboratory of Electron Microscopy, Behavioural and Electrophysiological Tests. The Institute is equipped with state-of-the-art research equipment and modernized animal house, where lab animals are bred, also transgenic animals, in accordance with the highest standards. Quality of experiments, publications and close ties with the international science community, place the Institute among the leading biological research centres in Europe.