The Schiller lab researches how cells are wired together into circuits and thereby influence each other in lung health and disease.

We are looking for a highly motivated postdoctoral scientist (f/m/x) to join the Schiller lab (https://twitter.com/SchillerLab; Pubmed: Schiller HB) at the Institute of Lung Health and Immunity / Comprehensive Pneumology Center.

Lung disease is the 2nd most common cause of death globally. Approximately 7.4% of the human population are currently affected by a chronic lung disease, making respiratory disease a major cause of morbidity and mortality globally. We aim to advance pulmonary precision medicine by reconstructing molecular and cellular circuits in the human lung in order to develop preventive and regenerative therapies.

We aim to leverage the emerging concept of the `lab in a loop´, which builds on accelerating the iteration of experimental perturbations of tissues from healthy donor lungs as well as diseased explant lungs in the lab with AI based model building (e.g. gene regulatory networks and cell-cell communication). Overall, we work on the vision of generating a human lung cell perturbation atlas that will be used to train a generative AI foundation model of cells in the human lung (collaboration with Theis lab at Helmholtz Munich). To enable this we have established single cell genomic readouts of perturbations in human precision cut lung slices (see https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.16.524219v1).

A large number of cellular/pathway perturbations in human lung tissue will enable generative AI and ultimately the resulting foundational model will be used to make predictions and capture the regulatory logic of cell circuits in the human lung from the latent space embeddings. In combination with integration of in vivo patient data (electronic health records + multimodal single cell omics) we anticipate that this approach will enable us to recognize specific disease states on the tissue level and predict molecular targets for reverting disease phenotypes. This platform will thus hold the potential to revolutionize and massively accelerate therapeutic and preventative strategies for lung diseases.

What we offer you
work-life balance flexible working hours & working-time models continuous education and training 30 days annual leave on-site health management service	home office options on-site nursery & holiday care elder care company pension scheme discounted public transport ticket

Munich, with its numerous lakes and its vicinity to the Alps, is considered to be one of the cities with the best quality of life worldwide. With its first-class universities and world-leading research institutions it offers an intellectually stimulating environment.

Provided that the prerequisites are fulfilled, a salary level up to E 13 is possible. Social benefits are based on the collective agreement for the federal public service (TVöD). The position is (initially) limited to two years, under certain circumstances an extension can be arranged.

To promote diversity, we welcome applications from talented people regardless of gender, cultural background, nationality, ethnicity, sexual identity, physical abilities, religion and age. Qualified applicants with physical disabilities will be given preference.
If you have obtained a university degree abroad, we require further documents from you regarding the recognition of the degree. Please request the recognition as early as possible.