Description
Pursuant to § 7 sections 1 and 3 of Resolution No. 91/IX/2021 of the Senate of the Jagiellonian University of 29 September 2021 on: the rules of recruitment for the Doctoral School of Exact and Natural Sciences at the Jagiellonian University in the academic year 2020/2021, the Director of the Doctoral School of Exact and Natural Sciences announces a competition for 1 doctoral student/s with a scholarship financed from the research project funds as part of the PhD study programme Biomedical Sciences.
Within the Weave-UNISONO funded project entitle "Aging-associated, specific pathomechanisms of endothelial dysfunction in sepsis: pathway analysis and experimental therapy" a commission set up at the School will conduct recruitment for the PhD study programme Biomedical Sciences in the academic year 2022/23.
The project manager Prof. dr hab. Stefan Chłopicki offers an opportunity to complete the doctorate in the discipline of Biological Sciences.
After the interviews and the evaluation of the candidates, the Chairman of the committee presents a report to the Director containing a list of candidates recommended for admission to the school as part of the research project.
Detailed terms and procedures of admission.
Required documents:
(required as part of a given education program and resulting from the specificity of the research project)
To make the application process fast and easy, please follow the rules.
Please send your application documents to the e-mail address of the Project Manager Prof. dr hab. Stefan Chłopicki e-mail: stefan.chlopicki@jcet.eu and through the Online Application System (OAS).
Project description:
Sepsis, a life-threatening systemic inflammatory disorder, and the outcome of sepsis in elderly patients is substantially worse than in younger patients. Endothelial dysfunction importantly contributes to pathophysiology of sepsis and recent studies provide key evidence that pro-inflammatory stimuli and oxidative stressors induce a significantly more severe degree of endothelial dysfunction in blood vessels of aged rats and mice, when compared to the responses in young animals.
Despite the evidence that aging sensitizes the vasculature to the deleterious effects of pro-inflammatory factors and oxidants, and despite the fact that circulatory shock primarily affects the aging population, and despite the fact that the age of the population continues to increase in developed countries, surprisingly, there are currently no studies specifically focusing on the mechanisms underlying the sepsis-associated impairment of endothelial function in aging animals.
The central hypotheses of the project that seeks for a talented PhD student are that (1) accelerated endothelial dysfunction is a key contributor to multiple organ failure and mortality in aging animals during sepsis and (2) in aging blood vessels, unique cellular and molecular mechanisms operate that render them extremely vulnerable to the oxidative stress-associated endothelial dysfunction during sepsis. In the frame of the project we will try to identify unique pathophysiological patterns and will yield potentially targetable novel pathways that are selectively perturbed in the aged vasculature in response to sepsis. The potential target will include Nrf2 (a master regulatory factor of the antioxidant response) nuclear enzyme PARP, telomere loss age-associated down-regulation of circulating IGF1 levels, age-dependent changes in vascular metabolism and others.
This interdiscyplinary project encompassing in vivo work and vascular and cellular studies, should shed light on the pharmacotherapeutic mechansisms of age-associated worsening of endothelial dysfunction in sepsis. This topic represent an important challenge in medicine given the fact that as yet there are no effective pharmacological approaches for the therapy of circulatory shock and multiorgan failure of sepsis.
