PHD Position Neuroimmunology and Multiple Sclerosis
100 %, starting Spring 2026
The Department of Biomedicine is a joint effort between the University of Basel and the University Hospitals Basel. It unites basic and clinical scientists to advance our understanding of health and disease and to develop pioneering therapies benefiting the lives of patients in areas of unmet need. With more than 70 research groups and 800 employees, the Department of Biomedicine is the largest department at the University. We are located in the heart of Basel at 6 different locations. Be part of our future!
The Clinical Neuroimmunology Laboratory in the Department of Biomedicine, headed by Professor Tobias Derfuss, is planning to open a PhD position in Spring of 2026. Research in the lab is aimed at understanding the causes and pathomechanisms of autoimmune diseases affecting the nervous system, particularly multiple sclerosis and myasthenia gravis.
Your position
The goal of the project is to understand the cause of multiple sclerosis, focusing on the interactions between autoreactive B cells, the lymphotropic virus EBV, and the cellular anatomy of the central nervous system. Work will involve both patient samples and experiments with live animals.Experimental methods include molecular and cell biology, flow cytometry, histology and microscopy, protein methods, and bioinformatics.
Your profile
We are looking for people who enjoy working in the lab, and with whom other people also enjoy working together. Basic research requires thought, patience, attention to detail, the commitment of large amounts of time and energy, and the ability to tolerate frustration. You need to be able to work independently, and also to work in a highly integrated way as part of a team, sometimes under circumstances that may seem like they benefit the team while the immediate benefit to you may not be clear.
We offer you
We are a small lab, and we offer a stable, friendly environment in which doctoral and medical students can develop their skills and their understanding, with solid support from people with experience in the various required techniques. We don't make unreasonable demands, and we are open to discuss more or less all aspects of the work and the environment. The Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel is very well equipped, and smartly run by people who understand what it takes to get cutting edge research done, and the community of PhD students here is well supported and socially welcoming.Note that this position was advertised with an error in the email address in February. Applicants who applied to the ubs.ch address are encouraged to reapply with the correct address below. Interested applicants should contact the project leader Nicholas Sanderson by email at
nicholas.sanderson@usb.ch, using as a subject exactly the text "neuroimmunology PhD 2026"
Please include two things: a CV as a separate file, not larger than 1MB, and, as text included in the main body of the email, a five- to ten-sentence discussion of a publication from our group which you consider interesting. The text should specify the main question and main answer of the work, and identify, if possible, strengths and weaknesses. If you seek help from a computer in developing the content of the text, please add one sentence explaining why. You can expect an initial response from us within one week.
