Applicants should have (or soon earn) an academic degree in a life science (for specifications see below) that qualifies them to commence a PhD study. All doctoral candidates (DCs) are expected to have strong reading, writing, listening and speaking English skills. Below the PhD research projects are sorted by biotoxins.
Mycotoxin topics:
DC1: Past, present and future distributions of habitats of mycotoxin producing fungal species (BOKU, Austria)
Candidates should have a strong interest in climate modeling and data sciences as well as programming skills.
DC2: Applied machine learning to improve predictive models of mycotoxin occurrence (UCSC, Italy)
Candidates should have a background in agronomy and/or plant pathology, as well as strong interest in statistics, predictive modelling and in machine learning.
DC5: Investigate combined toxicity of regulated and emerging mycotoxins (INRAE, France)
Candidates should have a strong interest in toxicology and ideally already obtained experience with in vitro cell culture experiments.
DC7: Determine the occurrence, bioavailability and toxicity of modified ochratoxin A (BOKU, Austria)
Candidates should have a master degree in chemistry as well as a strong interest in both analytical chemistry (mass spectrometry) and toxicology.
DC8: Develop enzymatic aflatoxin detoxification (BIOMIN, Austria)
The ideal background would be in enzymology. Candidates can expect to work in molecular microbiology, enzymology and analytical chemistry laboratories of an industrial research center.
Phycotoxin Topics:
DC6: Determine toxicity equivalency factors for shellfish toxins of unknown mode of action (USC, Spain)
Applicants should have a background and interest in pharmacology/toxicology, if possible with knowledge in analysis by mass spectrometry.
DC9: Investigate the molecular modulation of biotoxin depuration in shellfish (CIIMAR, Portugal)
Applicants should have a background in molecular biology, biochemistry or genetics as well as interest in chemical analysis of biotoxins.
Plant Toxin Topics:
DC4: Determine plant alkaloids in the European food supply and changes during food processing (VSCHT, Czech Republic)
Candidates should have a master degree in chemistry as well as a strong interest in both analytical chemistry (mass spectrometry) and toxicology.
DC10: Develop rapid, easy to use and cost-effective tests for tropane-alkaloids in food (QUB, Northern Ireland, UK)
Candidates should have a master degree in chemistry as well as a strong interest in analytical chemistry.
Overarching Topic:
DC3: Selective sampling systems for portable mass spectrometry for on-site testing of biotoxins (WR, Netherlands)
Candidates should have a master degree in chemistry as well as a strong interest in analytical chemistry in general and in mass spectrometry in particular.