Position: PhD studentship funded by EU Host-Driven Marie Curie Action RTN (Marie Curie job opportunity for Early Stage Researcher, 0-4 years of experience).
Place of work: Lyon, France
Contract: Fixed term
Duration: 3 years
Start date: 01/09/2007
Deadline for application: 01/08/2007
Job title: Pre-clinical Hyperpolarized Helium3 MR imaging
Profile: Master degree (or equivalent) in Physics or Biomedical Engineering. The candidate will ideally have already some training/experience in magnetic resonance techniques. Interest in experimental cross-disciplinary work (biology, medical imaging) is needed. 
Job description: Development of pre-clinical Helium3 imaging protocols oriented towards drug evaluation in animal models of lung diseases. Research will focus on non-invasive imaging protocols suitable with longitudinal studies and on extraction of regional lung function parameter (pO2, gas flow, gas exchange, etc). Parts of these protocols, already demonstrated in rats, will be extended to mice as a key animal model for lung disease. The student will be encouraged to participate in ongoing collaborations with other researchers across Europe with multiple opportunities to visit leading international academic and industrial laboratories, and to attend taught summer schools.
Environment: The work will take place in the NMR laboratory located on the Campus of the Lyon University. The lab has a strong experience in pre-clinical Helium3 imaging. It is equipped with small bore 2 T and 4.7 T MR scanner and it has access to human and small animal research platform (MRI, PET, microCT, US). Lyon, the second largest urban area in France, is the second research and development pole in France with approximately 17 500 researchers. Located at the crossroads of northern and southern Europe (2 hours drive from Alps ski resorts and 3 hours from Mediterranean coast), the city, part of the World Heritage List, offers a wide range of cultural and outdoors activities.
Funding: The project is funded as part of the EU- 6th Framework Program - Research and Training Network "PHELINET" (Polarised Helium Lung Imaging Network, 2007-2011, information posted on http://www.phil.ens.fr). As a consequence, specific rules with trans-national mobility conditions apply for recruitment.
Gross amount of employment contract: 31985 euros/year. Recruited researchers in Marie Curie RTNs also receive travel, mobility, and relocation allowances. 
Restrictive conditions: For detailed information about the rules of mobility and conditions of nationality applicable to eligible researchers, please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/research/fp6/mariecurie-actions/. In particular: 1/The candidate should preferably (but not exclusively) be a national of EU Member or Associated States, excluding France; 2/ At the date of appointment, she/he should not have resided or worked in France for more than 12 months in the last 3 years. PHELINET recruitment is based on an equal opportunity policy. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
Contact: For more information on the project, please contact Yannick Crmillieux, Senior researcher, PHELINET Network Coordinator, Laboratoire de RMN, University of Lyon, Tel +33-(0)472448208
e-mail: Yannick.cremillieux@univ-lyon1.fr.


