Oproepkracht - allround proefdierverzorger - Hubrecht Institute - Utrecht

• Je verzorgt dagelijks verschillende proefdieren, met nadruk op knaagdieren.
  Daarnaast heb je interesse in aquatische soorten zoals zebravissen, axolotls en Zuid-Afrikaanse klauwpadden.
• Je draagt zorg voor voeding, schoon water en optimale huisvestingscondities.
• Je controleert het welzijn van de dieren en legt dit vast in welzijnsdagboeken.
• Je monitort de waterkwaliteit, temperatuur, luchtvochtigheid en andere belangrijke omgevingsparameters.
• Je reinigt en desinfecteert verblijven, apparatuur en werkruimtes volgens de geldende hygiënevoorschriften.
• Je voert eenvoudige biotechnische handelingen uit, zoals wegen, oormerken en toedieningen.
• Je werkt nauw samen met collega’s en onderzoekers en signaleert bijzonderheden op tijd.

PostDoc - Hubrecht Institute - Utrecht

Description of the project.

Every organ in our body harbors dedicated adult stem cells that replace lost tissue throughout life. Adult stem cells are also the cells-of-origin of cancer. The Organoid group of the Hubrecht Institute has developed conditions to expand human adult stem cells from multiple tissues indefinitely as 3D structures in a dish, so-called organoids, recapitulating essential aspects of the original organ. These organoids can be directly grown from healthy and diseased human organs.

These organoids are rapidly gaining ground as research tools in various scientific disciplines, including basic developmental and cell biology, infectiology, toxicology and research on diseases, especially cancer.

With the funds of the NWO gravitation grant we want to study the interaction between virussen and organoids

PhD Computational Semantic Representations: a Multilingual Language-Change Study

The Department of Methodology & Statistics at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences has a job opening for PhD candidate. In the position of PhD candidate, you are responsible for conducting original research on computational models of semantic change and synonymy evolution across historical corpora, structured around three lines of work: (1) modelling semantic relationships across time; (2) interpretability of semantic change models; and (3) generalization across languages and domains. You will carry out activities like developing, benchmarking, and refining NLP pipelines, analysing multilingual historical datasets, and disseminating your findings through publications and presentations.

Your main tasks and responsibilities include:

• Designing, implementing, and evaluating computational models using contextualized word embeddings and LLMs to track semantic change and synonymy evolution across time.
• developing hierarchical clustering architectures to identify and track polysemous senses in historical corpora.
• applying the framework to English (COCA/COHA), Dutch (Delpher), and Spanish (RAE) data to automatically detect synonyms and measure semantic trajectories.
• building and maintaining an open-source pipeline for the broader language change research community.
• investigating whether observed evolutionary tendencies are universal or language specific.
• contributing to the intersection of computational linguistics and the Social and Behavioural Sciences through interdisciplinary collaboration.
• writing and publishing scientific articles in international journals and presenting at conferences.
• participating in the academic community of the Department and the research group, including seminars and workshops.
• contributing to teaching or departmental tasks for up to 10% of your appointment.

PhD Mental Imagery in Mood Disorders: Cognitive Mechanisms and Implications

Compared with verbal thoughts, mental images evoke stronger emotional responses and may increase vulnerability to emotional distress.

Intrusive mental imagery has therefore emerged as an important transdiagnostic factor across psychological disorders. However, it remains unclear which characteristics of intrusive mental imagery (e.g. vividness, emotional intensity and perceived uncontrollability) are most clinically relevant and through which cognitive mechanisms they contribute to emotional distress and the persistence of mood disorders.

The overall aim of this project is to improve our understanding of the characteristics and cognitive mechanisms underlying intrusive mental imagery and to translate these insights into more targeted imagery-based psychological interventions.

Planned studies include a scoping review; experimental studies; qualitative interviews; and the development and evaluation of an imagery-based intervention.

Your job

• designing and conducting a series of studies (including a scoping review, experimental laboratory research, qualitative interviews and intervention development);
• recruiting participants and coordinating data collection in laboratory and clinical settings;
• analysing quantitative and qualitative data using appropriate research methods;
• publishing your findings in international peer-reviewed journals and presenting your work at national and international conferences;
• collaborating with researchers at Utrecht University and with external clinical partners;
• contributing to teaching activities within the Department of Clinical Psychology (approximately 10% of your appointment).

PhD Improving Carer Support in Eating Disorders

Building on these promising findings, this PhD project will evaluate the effectiveness of the training, examine carers' emotion regulation as a mechanism of change, identify unmet support needs to inform tailored interventions, and investigate the contribution of lived experience expertise using both quantitative and qualitative research methods.