Job Description

Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), and Kiel University (CAU)

You will work at the interface of Kiel University (CAU) and the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), one of Germany’s leading academic medical centers. The research environment includes close collaboration with the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB) and the Competence Centre for Genomic Analysis ( CCGA), providing access to cutting-edge genomics infrastructure and expertise. Kiel hosts multiple Excellence Clusters (including Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation) and Collaborative Research Centers (SFBs), offering a highly interactive ecosystem connecting basic science, computation, and clinical research.

We are seeking a PhD student to join the ERC Starting Grant project SINGuLAR ( https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101219388) at the Balzer Lab ( https://balzer-lab.org), investigating how human kidneys adapt to organ loss.

Our lab studies how human kidneys regenerate after organ loss using cutting-edge single-cell and translational approaches. Rather than focusing on injury, this project investigates pure adaptation in living kidney donors—a unique human model in which individuals lose 50% of kidney mass yet show remarkable compensatory growth.

Start in our team

We are looking for professional and competent support to start as soon as possible, limited for 3 years.

What we offer:

• The salary will be based on the German E13 TV-L scale, if terms and conditions under collective bargaining law are fulfilled
• Part-time employment currently 25 hours/week
• Access to state-of-the-art single-cell and spatial omics technologies
• Structured supervision and training, with strong support for skill development, publications, and career progression
• You can find more attractive UKSH benefits here: Benefits (uksh.de)

Your role:

• You will contribute to building the first longitudinal single-cell and spatial atlas of human kidney adaptation, combining single-cell RNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics, and single-cell ATAC-seq with deeply phenotyped clinical cohorts
• You will support the development and application of experimental and computational workflows, working closely with a postdoctoral researcher and other team members
• You will be involved in generating and analyzing multi-omic datasets and contributing to collaborative projects with clinicians and interdisciplinary partners, with increasing independence over the course of your PhD

Your profile:

We are looking for candidates with a strong interest in single-cell and/or spatial omics and a willingness to develop skills in bioinformatics analysis and data integration

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in bioinformatics, computational biology, genomics, molecular biology, or a related field
• Basic experience or strong interest in single-cell data analysis (e.g., scRNA-seq; spatial or epigenomics is a strong plus)
• Programming skills in R and/or Python
• Interest in or willingness to engage in wet-lab work (single-cell workflows)
• Ability to work collaboratively in an interdisciplinary environment, with growing independence over time

We are looking forward to your application including a motivation letter, CV and contact details of two references. Please submit your application until 21st May 2026, indicating the reference number 28517.

Contact for Information:

• Prof. Dr. med. Michael Sören Balzer (E-Mail: MichaelSoeren.Balzer@uksh.de)