03 Postdoctoral Fellowship at Leiden University, Netherlands

The Metabolomics and Analytics Center (MAC) is seeking a talented and motivated Postdoctoral Researcher to advance the integration of cutting-edge microfluidics with mass spectrometry (MS) for exosome purification and metabolic profiling. This project aims to develop an innovative biotechnology platform for analyzing extracellular vesicles (EVs)—particularly exosomes—with potential applications across diagnostics, oncology, and drug development.

In previous collaboration with EXIT071, a MAC spinout, we developed a depletion zone isotachophoresis (dzITP) device for highly efficient preconcentration, separation, and filtration of biomolecules. The next phase of this work involves coupling this microfluidic technology directly to MS—leveraging the powerful synergy of dzITP with MS, the gold standard for metabolomics, to maximize insight into exosome-derived biomarkers.

This project will center on the design and implementation of a novel microfluidic transfer module, enabling automated introduction of purified fractions into the MS system. This will involve segmented flow and automation, with the goal of establishing a robust, high-throughput platform for targeted exosome analysis which can also be applied to other volume-limited samples.

This position is part of the EU-funded DRAGON project, which brings together biomedical and clinical partners from Italy and Spain to co-develop diagnostic tools for monitoring bladder cancer progression and drug resistance via EV analysis. The Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR), home to MAC, is internationally recognized for its expertise in metabolomics and technology development for biofluid diagnostics and industrial biotechnology.

The Metabolomics and Analytics Center (MAC) seeks to hire a post doc to develop and engineer an innovative single cell analyzer, using an automated sample handling platform and hanging droplet evaporator to process single cells, exosome samples and other biomass restricted samples for high resolution mass spectrometric analysis.  As a Research Engineer, you will collaborate with colleagues at LACDR, academic partners and at instrument companies to develop this analyzer platform. You will build upon an existing and patented hanging droplet evaporator technology. You can benefit from on-going research on innovative metabolomics, lipidomics and proteomics approaches for single cell analysis and exosome fractions. This project is part of the Biotech Booster program to accelerate commercialization of innovative biotechnology research, and through that you can exchange ideas with other engineers and entrepreneurs. Your goal is to develop a single cell analyzer platform that can help to answer important questions in clinical and drug research, such as predicting response in cancer immune therapy. This platform will ultimately become part of a new start-up company, and you are expected to develop showcases for this new platform, and develop ideas to implement in a business. For this you will learn and exchange ideas within the Biotech Booster community of entrepreneurs. The success of your technological developments will directly translate into a new product. Join us and be part of this pioneering endeavor.

You are an enthusiastic researcher with an interest in accelerating and scaling up the energy transition through the inclusion of citizens and societal actors, are well versed in transdisciplinary approaches, and have a solid background in citizen science and/or societal engagement – both in theory and in practice. You have recently completed your PhD (or already have a date planned for your defence) and are a strong independent researcher, but also a team player eager to share your own knowledge and experience while also learning from others. You are able to contribute your own fresh and original ideas for the advancement of societal engagement practices and the application of citizen science towards energy transitions. You have good writing skills for both an academic and a lay audience, enjoy exploring the scientific literature, have a track record of scientific publications proportionate with your career stage, and have ambitions to grow in the field as an academic at the interface of science and society.