12 PhD positions in Pharmaceutical Sciences

The VDS-PhaNuSpo of the University of Vienna is looking for 12 highly qualified, enthusiastic and curious PhD students.

Take the next step in your academic career and become part of a thriving international research community!

Three disciplines - one goal: The Vienna Doctoral School of Pharmaceutical, Nutritional and Sport Sciences (VDS-PhaNuSpo) at the University of Vienna offers doctoral students a scientific education at the highest level. It is the largest doctoral training programme in Austria encompassing the three disciplines of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nutritional Sciences and Sport Sciences and brings together about 160 doctoral candidates and 45 Principal Investigators. Our aim is to attract outstanding students from around the world, to train excellent scientists and guide them towards research at the forefront of Pharmaceutical, Nutritional and Sport Sciences, to provide an open-minded environment that allows for networking, and to experience a vibrant and dynamic community to carry out interdisciplinary and curiosity-driven research in the heart of Europe.

PhD projects (Job#number, Name of Univ.-Prof. supervisor, name of PhD research project)

• PhaNuSpo#1- Konrad: Studying and Overcoming the H2O2-Induced Resistance towards Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Inhibitors in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

• PhaNuSpo#2- Kopp: Non-coding RNA in stress-related metabolic disease: physiological role and therapeutic application.

AIDD#1 - AIDD#10 of the Anti-Infective Drug Discovery (AIDD) doctoral training project, led by the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and funded by the FWF-doc:fund. This cohort of students will train together on interrelated topics in the field of anti-infective drug discovery. The programme will start in the second half of 2025 and is embedded in the doctoral training of the VDS-PhaNuSpo.

• AIDD#1- Boettcher: Anti-infectives from antagonistic interactions of Pseudomonas and Candida.

• AIDD#2- Daile: Performance-enhancing formulations for antifungal and antibacterial therapies.

• AIDD#3- Kirchmair: Computer-guided identification and optimization of small molecules targeting Pseudomonas and Candida.

• AIDD#4- Ortmayr: Combined phenotypic and metabolome profiling for accelerated compound characterization.

• AIDD#5- Orts: New antifungal strategy against invasive Candida infections.

• AIDD#6- Rademacher: Non-carbohydrate-based glycomimetic-based inhibition of P. aeruginosa biofilm formation.

• AIDD#7- Rollinger: Artificial intelligence for the targeted identification and isolation of anti-infective natural products.

• AIDD#8- Schmidt: Proteome-level identification of mechanism of action (MoA) of natural compounds.

• AIDD#9- Schuetzenmeister: Total synthesis of antimicrobial natural products and analogues.

• AIDD#10- Zotchev: Targeting siderophore re-uptake as a strategy to fight infections caused by P. aeruginosa.

What we offer:

• Work-life balance: Our employees enjoy flexible working hours and can partially work remotely.

• Inspiring working atmosphere: You are a part of an international academic team in a healthy and fair working environment.

• Good public transport connections: Your workplace is easily accessible by public transport.

• Internal further training & coaching: Opportunity to deepen your skills on an ongoing basis. There are over 600 courses to choose from – free of charge.

• Fair salary: The basic salary of EUR 3,714,80 (on a full-time basis) increases if we can credit professional experience.

• Contract: The employment duration is 4 years. Initially limited to 1.5 years, the employment relationship is automatically extended to 4 years if the employer does not terminate it within the first 12 months by submitting a non-extension declaration. The four-year positions can be filled as soon as possible, preferably no later than the start of the winter semester on 1 October 2025.

• Equal opportunities for all: We welcome every additional/new personality to the team!