Name and Surname of the Supervisor: Rūta Matulevičiūtė
Institution (Company), Department: EMBL PI
Preliminary Topic: Establishing Housekeeping Genes and Baseline HIF Pathway Expression under Hypoxia in Pancreatic Cancer
Short Description of the Internship Work: Hypoxia, a lack of oxygen, is one of the key features of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) that drives its aggressive behavior, treatment resistance, and poor patient outcomes, making it an important factor to investigate in PDAC biology. This BSc project will optimise RT-qPCR normalisation and establish baseline hypoxia-responsive expression of HIFs and their downstream genes in pancreatic cancer cell lines. MiaPaCa-2 and patient-derived wild-type lines will be cultured under normoxia and hypoxia at defined time points; RNA will be extractedand RT-qPCR performed to (i) evaluate and select stable housekeeping genes for normalisation and (ii) quantify baseline expression of HIFs and downstream genes across conditions. Outcomes include a ranked set of housekeeping genes (with recommended normalisers per cell line/condition) and a baseline expression dataset to support follow-up studies.
Qualification Requirements (Degree): BSc
Application Deadline: 2026-02-05
Additional Comments: St is important that the student has a good understanding of the theoretical foundations of the methods of this project, especially the cultivation of cell cultures under normoxia and hypoxia, RNA isolation, cDNA synthesis, RT-qPCR.