We are looking for highly motivated PhD students to work on the role of transcription factors and epigenetic events occurring during cell commitment, lineage specification and differentiation in normal development and pathological alterations of the heart.

The developing mammalian heart is generated by multipotent cardiac precursors, which can give rise to the diverse cell types of the heart – cardiac muscle, smooth muscle and endothelial cells. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms regulating cardiac specification or progenitor cell fate during normal development and pathological alterations of the heart. Our aim is to understand how transcriptional master regulators of cell fate work together with epigenetic modifiers in the establishment and maintenance of cell-type specific gene expression patterns during cardiac cell fate determination and differentiation.

We use a wide range of biochemical, molecular/cell biological, embryological and transgenic techniques to study the generation and fate of cardiac progenitors in cell culture and in vivo in mouse and zebrafish.

The successful candidates will work in the group of Prof. Dr. Gergana Dobreva at the Max-Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, which provides excellent research facilities, as well as a friendly and dynamic working environment.

Further details:
http://www.nature.com