You will work on your own project, supported by technicians and surrounded by a team of PhD students and postdocs that work with similar and other technologies in the field of neural circuits in eating disorders. The project focuses on exploring leptin as treatment for anorexia nervosa. We encourage and support the candidate to develop his/her own project within the interest of our research team.

The project will be performed within the department of Translational Neuroscience, at the UMC Utrecht Brain Center. The Department of Translational Neuroscience is the preclinical department of the Division Neuroscience of the University Medical Center Utrecht. The research mission of the Department of Translational Neuroscience is to discover and delineate mechanisms and processes which are fundamental to the development of neural systems and to the control of behavior, and to translate these to pathogenesis and disease models. The unique advantage of this department of Neuroscience is its embedding in the clinical environment of UMCU and its multidisciplinary character. The Department’s toolkit includes light sheet microscopy, optogenetics, electrophysiology, an own animal facility, viral vector generation and more.

• You have a PhD in neuroscience/neuroendocrinology.
• You are a highly motivated and experienced scientist with strong expertise in neuroendocrine and behavioral neurobiology and knowledge in optimizing ELISAs.
• You are able and interested in working in a unique multidisciplinary team with researchers from several universities involved in this project.
• Knowledge of neuroscience and experience with rodent handling are required.
• You have good writing and presenting skills in English.

• A salary between € 3493 - € 5504 gross per month (salary scale 10), based on full-time employment (36 hours). 
• Salary increase of 3% from July 2025, according to the collective labor agreement (cao).
• A position for a period of 2 years. 
• Year-end bonus of 8.3% and holiday allowance of 8%. 
• Pension insurance with ABP. We take care of approximately 70% of the monthly contribution. 
• 100% public transport reimbursement. Are you coming on foot, by bike or by car? You will then receive a reimbursement of € 0.18 per km (by car up to a max. of 40 km one way). 
• Possibilities to develop yourself personally and professionally. 
• The option to select additional employment benefits in exchange for gross salary, such as purchasing a bicycle and memberships.