Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
University of Copenhagen

We are looking for a highly motivated skilled and dynamic postdoc for a 3-year position with start on 1 November 2023 or as soon as possible hereafter.

The postdoc project is focused on the development and characterization of psychedelics with unique selectivity profiles between neuronal receptors.

Information on the department can be found at: drug.ku.dk.

The research
This post doc project is part of an ambitious collaborative research project funded by a Lundbeck Foundation Collaborative Project Grant between 7 PIs at University of Copenhagen University of Helsinki and Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen. The project arises from the recent pioneering discovery made by the University of Helsinki PIs that some psychedelic drugs in addition to their activity at the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor and other serotonergic/monoaminergic receptors act as positive allosteric modulators of the BDNF receptor TrkB (Moliner et al. Nat. Neurosci. 2023). The overall aims of this post doc project are to develop novel classes of ligands with selective action on TrkB over 5-HT2A and vice versa and to study the molecular basis for and the modes of action of these ligands at the receptors. The project group is highly interdisciplinary and multifaceted and includes expertise within medicinal chemistry computational chemistry/structural biology molecular pharmacology biochemistry neuroscience ex vivo/in vivo pharmacology and PET imaging.

The postdoc will be employed in the research group of Professor Anders A. Jensen but the post doc will mainly be mentored/supervised by Data and Computing Facility Manager Kasper Harpse.

Your job
Your project will have a dual focus on 5-HT2A and TrkB receptors and it will be performed in close collaboration with synthetic chemists and molecular pharmacologists at University of Copenhagen. In parallel with taking part in ongoing research activities with focus on the 5-HT2A receptors you will construct binding models of the TrkB receptor with known psychedelic compounds. Using these models and 5-HT2A structures you will conduct docking-based virtual screenings of large commercial databases to identify new chemical scaffolds with selective activity at the respective receptors. Based on diversity in chemical scaffolds and detailed structure-activity relationship data you will take part in selecting compounds from our in-house 5-HT2A compound library for testing at TrkB. Based on known and new hits you will optimize/improve the receptor models for docking performance and apply your skills in structure-based drug design to improve the selectivity profiles.

As this project is part of an international collaboration there will be regular project meetings where you are expected to present your results and progress. As part of the employment you will also take on various administrative and research-related responsibilities including the supervision of students associated with this project. Finally you will be expected to do some teaching of bachelor and master students at University of Copenhagen.

For further information about the project and the postdoc position please feel free to contact Kasper Harpse; e-mail: kasper.harpsoe@sund.ku.dk.

Profile
We need a highly motivated and experienced computational chemist who meets the following requirements:

Essential experience and skills:

• PhD within computational chemistry or similar area
• At least one postdoc position after PhD
• Experience with:
• Homology modelling
• Molecular docking
• Binding site characterization
• Structure-based ligand design
• You are able to work in teams as well as independently.
• Proficient communication skills and excellent English skills written and spoken.

Desirable experience and skills:

• A scientific track record including publications within a research field related to this project.
• Target knowledge of 5-HT2A and/or TrkB receptors (or structurally related receptors)
• Experience with the Schrdinger Drug Discovery Suite
• Creating workflows using shell scripting Python KNIME or similar
• Cheminformatics experience
• Experience with molecular dynamics simulations
• International experience

Place of employment
The place of employment is at the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences University of Copenhagen. The department is internationally recognized for its research within neuroscience and ligand development. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in a dynamic and international research environment.

Terms of employment
The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week. The position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of 3 years. The starting date is 1 November 2023 or as soon as possible hereafter.

Salary pension and other conditions of employment are set in accordance with the Agreement between the Ministry of Taxation and AC (Danish Confederation of Professional Associations) or other relevant organisation. Currently the monthly salary starts at 36290 DKK/approx. 4860 EUR (October 2023 level). Depending on qualifications a supplement may be negotiated. The employer will pay an additional 17.1 % to your pension fund.

Foreign and Danish applicants may be eligible for tax reductions if they hold a PhD degree and have not lived in Denmark the last 10 years.

The position is covered by the Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities 2020.

Foreign applicants may find this link useful: www.ism.ku.dk (International Staff Mobility).

Application procedure
Your online application must be submitted in English by clicking Apply now below. Furthermore your application must include the following documents/attachments all in PDF format:

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page).
2. CV incl. education work/research experience language skills and other skills relevant for the position.
3. A certified/signed copy of a) PhD certificate and b) Master of Science certificate. If the PhD is not completed a written statement from the supervisor will do.
4. List of publications.

Deadline for applications: 12 September 202323.59pm CET

We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process
After the expiry of the deadline for applications the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor. Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.

You can read about the recruitment process at https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/.

The applicant will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

Interviews are expected to be held in week 39.

The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.