PhD Student (m/w/d) Single-cell & Spatial Omics in Kidney Adaptation (ERC-funded)

Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), and Kiel University (CAU)

You will work at the interface of Kiel University (CAU) and the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), one of Germany’s leading academic medical centers. The research environment includes close collaboration with the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB) and the Competence Centre for Genomic Analysis (CCGA), providing access to cutting-edge genomics infrastructure and expertise. Kiel hosts multiple Excellence Clusters (including Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation) and Collaborative Research Centers (SFBs), offering a highly interactive ecosystem connecting basic science, computation, and clinical research.

We are seeking a PhD student to join the ERC Starting Grant project SINGuLAR (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101219388) at the Balzer Lab (https://balzer-lab.org), investigating how human kidneys adapt to organ loss.

Our lab studies how human kidneys regenerate after organ loss using cutting-edge single-cell and translational approaches. Rather than focusing on injury, this project investigates pure adaptation in living kidney donors—a unique human model in which individuals lose 50% of kidney mass yet show remarkable compensatory growth.

Start in our team

We are looking for professional and competent support to start as soon as possible, limited for 3 years.

What we offer:

• The salary will be based on the German E13 TV-L scale, if terms and conditions under collective bargaining law are fulfilled
• Part-time employment currently 25 hours/week
• Access to state-of-the-art single-cell and spatial omics technologies
• Structured supervision and training, with strong support for skill development, publications, and career progression
• You can find more attractive UKSH benefits here: Benefits (uksh.de)

Your role:

• You will contribute to building the first longitudinal single-cell and spatial atlas of human kidney adaptation, combining single-cell RNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics, and single-cell ATAC-seq with deeply phenotyped clinical cohorts
• You will support the development and application of experimental and computational workflows, working closely with a postdoctoral researcher and other team members
• You will be involved in generating and analyzing multi-omic datasets and contributing to collaborative projects with clinicians and interdisciplinary partners, with increasing independence over the course of your PhD

Your profile:

We are looking for candidates with a strong interest in single-cell and/or spatial omics and a willingness to develop skills in bioinformatics analysis and data integration.

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in bioinformatics, computational biology, genomics, molecular biology, or a related field
• Basic experience or strong interest in single-cell data analysis (e.g., scRNA-seq; spatial or epigenomics is a strong plus)
• Programming skills in R and/or Python
• Interest in or willingness to engage in wet-lab work (single-cell workflows)
• Ability to work collaboratively in an interdisciplinary environment, with growing independence over time

We are looking forward to your application including a motivation letter, CV and contact details of two references. Please submit your application until 21st May 2026, indicating the reference number 28517.

Contact for Information:

• Prof. Dr. med. Michael Sören Balzer (E-Mail: MichaelSoeren.Balzer@uksh.de)