A 5-year doctoral position is available in the Popovic lab (https://martafry.wixsite.com/popoviclab).

Applicants should have a MSc in cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, biotechnology or a related field. The position is to be filled in November 2025, the starting date is negotiable. The PhD student will focus on the mechanisms of DNA-protein crosslink repair and the identification of molecular causes of neurodegenerative diseases, aging and carcinogenesis, using stable human cell lines and the zebrafish animal model. Applicants with a strong background in molecular and cell biology and with knowledge of vertebrate physiology and brain biology will have an advantage.

Candidates with no previous experience of working with zebrafish are welcome to apply and will attend a zebrafish husbandry course at the European Zebrafish Resource Center (EZRC) before starting in the lab, as they are expected to work with fish on a weekly basis.

Interested applicants should contact the PI as soon as possible and submit their CV for pre-selection of candidates (mpopovic@irb.hr). The call will be open at the end of September 2025.

Short introduction and project summary

 

DNA-protein crosslinks (DPCs) are the second most common DNA which hinder all DNA transactions: replication, transcription, chromatin remodeling, recombination, and DNA repair, and therefore the consequences of impaired DNA-Protein Crosslink Repair (DPCR) are severe.  At the cellular level, impaired DPCR leads to the formation of double strand breaks (DSBs), genomic instability and cell death, while at the organismal level, impaired DPCR is associated with cancer, aging and neurodegeneration. The field is very new and developing rapidly since DPCR was recognized as a distinct DNA Damage Repair (DDR) pathway in 2014.

In my, group, we are trying to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms behind aging and neurodegenreation using the zebrafish animal model. We combine gene editing and gene silencing in embryos and adults, in order to find out which enzymes are primarily responsible for the repair of distinct DPCs such as topoisomerase 1 and 2-, Parp1- and histone-DPCs in the aging organism. We investigate DPC repair factors including proteases SPRTN, ACRC and proteasome, tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterases, nucleases Mre11 and Apex1 and 2, segregase ATPase p97, and several other adaptor proteins. We are currently developing methods to quantify aging and neurodegenerative phenotypes by investigating the behavior of embryonic and adult zebrafish deficient in specific DPCR factors (single and double mutants) that we have previously created in the lab using CRISPR/Cas editing. At the same time, we biochemically characterize the DPCs in the tissues of interest and, in combination with other cell biology methods, including live cell imaging, we try to identify changes at the molecular and cellular level that eventually lead to aging and to the disease onset.

​

PI and supervisor: Marta Popović, PhD (mpopovic@irb.hr), Zagreb, Croatia (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marta_Popovic)

Salary: 1400 EUR/month (neto, after taxes)

Lab website: https://martafry.wixsite.com/popoviclab