MSCA Postdoc fellow opportunity - Personalized chemotherapy approaches for gastrointestinal malignancies

Background: Gastrointestinal cancers remain a major clinical challenge and are still frequently treated with standard chemotherapy regimens. However, patient responses are highly variable, and there is a pressing need to develop better strategies to identify which tumors are most likely to respond to treatment and how therapeutic efficacy can be improved.

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What we offer

Project name: Towards personalized chemotherapy approaches for gastrointestinal malignancies

Project overview:This project will address this challenge through a translational oncology approach combining experimental cancer models, patient-derived information and molecular analyses. The fellow will contribute to the identification and validation of tumor features associated with chemotherapy response, with the broader aim of improving patient stratification and supporting more personalized treatment decisions.

The project will also explore biological processes that influence treatment sensitivity and may reveal opportunities to enhance the effectiveness of existing therapies. The host group offers a strong environment in gastrointestinal cancer biology, biomarker discovery, preclinical modelling and translational research, with access to clinical collaborators, patient cohorts and advanced institutional corefacilities.

The fellowship will provide interdisciplinary training in cancer biology, experimental therapeutics, biomarker development, data analysis and scientific communication, while contributing to clinically relevant research with potential impact on the management of gastrointestinal malignancies.

Objectives:

1. Identify tumor-associated molecular features linked to differential chemotherapy response in gastrointestinal malignancies.

2. Develop and apply experimental models to study how selected biological pathways influence treatment sensitivity.

3. Integrate laboratory and patient-derived data to support biomarker-driven patient stratification.

4. Explore translational strategies that may improve the effectiveness of standard therapies and generate a foundation for future precision-oncology studies.

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Application

Candidate's requirements:

• PhD holder in biomedical, biological, pharmaceutical, health sciences or related discipline.

• Mobility rule: Must not have lived in SPAIN for more than 12 months in the past 36 months. (Before the call deadline 09-September-2026).

• Junior profile: Research experience should not exceed more than 8 years, since graduation from the PhD.

Highly valued skills:

• Mammalian cell culture & gastrointestinal cancer models

• CRISPR/Cas9, RNA interference, or perturbation approaches

• Drug-response assays with chemotherapeutic agents

• Molecular biology: qPCR, Western blotting, immunofluorescence

• Functional assays: proliferation, clonogenicity, migration, invasion, apoptosis, ROS & iron measurements

• Xenograft models

• Tissue microarrays & immunohistochemistry

• Clinical cohort analysis

• Biostatistics

• Translational biomarker validation

Application process:

Please send a copy of the following documents to: Molecular.oncology@irblleida.cat & talent@irblleida.cat

Application deadline: 01/08/2026

Support documents: Curriculum vitae, motivation letter, publication list, contact details for two referees, PhD certificate or expected completion document, and any relevant certificates supporting eligibility or mobility.