PhD fellowship in peptide discovery at Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology
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PhD fellowship in peptide discovery at Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology
We are offering a three-year PhD fellowship in peptide discovery commencing 15th October 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.
Project description
To develop new therapies, we need to be able to find molecules that can both bind and reach disease-associated proteins inside cells. Traditional chemical structures used as drugs struggle to bind many proteins. Peptides are growing in promise as a drug modality, particularly cyclic peptides, because they excel at binding. But these peptides can struggle to reach their target proteins inside cells. For this Novo Nordisk Foundation funded PhD project, we will take inspiration from natural product cyclic peptides to discover molecules with the needed binding and cell entry abilities. We will develop experimental methods that can synthesize trillions of these molecules — a number exceeding the count of stars in our galaxy—and rapidly identify the most promising candidates. These molecules hold immense potential, as tools for advancing our understanding of basic biology, and as starting points for developing future therapeutics. This is a highly interdisciplinary project, involving aspects of chemical synthesis, molecular biology, protein expression/purification and biophysics. The successful candidate will join a young and dynamic research team working at the interface of chemistry and biology.
Principal supervisor
Associate Professor Joseph Rogers, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology
Start
15th October 2025
Duration
3 years as a PhD student
Our group and research
The Rogers Lab is focused on the discovery of new research ligands and drug-leads for disease-linked protein targets. De novo cyclic peptides feature heavily, due to the promise of the modality, and the powerful chemical biology technologies that enable their discovery. We have built a variant of the mRNA display-based Random nonstandard Peptide Integrated Discovery (RaPID) cyclic peptide discovery method. We are at the forefront of applying this technology to unsolved biomedical problems. Read more about our lab here: https://www.rogers.science
Our department
The Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology is committed to research-based education and interdisciplinary research that supports the development and understanding of chemical and pharmacological properties of drugs and drug targets at the highest level for the benefit of society. We work as part of a dynamic academic community of research, education and innovation within the Pharmaceutical Sciences bridging Health Sciences and Life Sciences.
Information about the Department can be found at https://drug.ku.dk/
Job description
Your key tasks as a PhD student at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences are:
Key criteria for the assessment of applicants
Applicants must have qualifications corresponding to a master’s degree related to the subject area of the project, e.g. chemistry, molecular biology, biochemistry or biophysics. Please note that your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (two years).
Other important criteria are:
Hands-on experience in any of following topics is desirable:
Place of employment
The place of employment is at the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in a dynamic and international research environment. Our research facilities include modern laboratories, including NMR, mass spec facilities.
Terms of employment
The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week.
The position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of 3 years.
The employment is conditioned upon the applicant’s successful enrolment as a PhD student at the Graduate School at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project to the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences.
The PhD study must be completed in accordance with The Ministerial Order on the PhD programme (2013) and the Faculty’s rules on achieving the degree.
The PhD student is expected to be affiliated to the graduate programme in pharmaceutical sciences, Drug Research Academy.
Salary, pension, and terms of employment are in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State. Depending on seniority, the monthly salary starts at approximately 30,800 DKK/Roughly 4,100 EUR (April 2025 level) plus pension.
Application procedure
Your application, in English, must be submitted electronically by clicking “Apply now” below and must include the following documents in PDF format:
1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page)
2. CV incl. education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position
3. Certified copy of original Master of Science diploma and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in other language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted. As a prerequisite for a PhD fellowship employment, your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree. We encourage you to read more in the assessment database: https://ufm.dk/en/education/recognition-and-transparency/find-assessments/assessment-database. Please note that we might ask you to obtain an assessment of your education performed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science. Applicants with a Master´s degree from abroad should also enclose a short description of the grading scale used
4. Publication list (if possible)
5. Other information to consider: References and recommendations (if possible)
The deadline for applications is 1st August 2025, 23.59pm CET
We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.
The further process
After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorised recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor.
The assessor makes a non-prioritized assessment of the academic qualifications and experience with respect to the above-mentioned area of research, techniques, skills and other requirements listed in the advertisement.
Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant.
The applicant will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.
Interviews are expected to be held in week 34/35 2025 (18th-29th August 2025)
You can read about the recruitment process at http://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/
Questions
For further information, applicants may contact the principal supervisor, Joseph Rogers, e-mail: joseph.rogers@sund.ku.dk, phone: +45 3532 4214 or PhD coordinator Marianne W. Jørgensen, e-mail: marianne.joergensen@sund.ku.dk, phone: +45 3533 6449.
General information about PhD studies at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences is available at the Graduate School’s website: https://healthsciences.ku.dk/phd/guidelines/
For more information on working and living in Denmark visit http://ism.ku.dk (International staff mobility) and https://www.workindenmark.dk
The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.
Project description
To develop new therapies, we need to be able to find molecules that can both bind and reach disease-associated proteins inside cells. Traditional chemical structures used as drugs struggle to bind many proteins. Peptides are growing in promise as a drug modality, particularly cyclic peptides, because they excel at binding. But these peptides can struggle to reach their target proteins inside cells. For this Novo Nordisk Foundation funded PhD project, we will take inspiration from natural product cyclic peptides to discover molecules with the needed binding and cell entry abilities. We will develop experimental methods that can synthesize trillions of these molecules — a number exceeding the count of stars in our galaxy—and rapidly identify the most promising candidates. These molecules hold immense potential, as tools for advancing our understanding of basic biology, and as starting points for developing future therapeutics. This is a highly interdisciplinary project, involving aspects of chemical synthesis, molecular biology, protein expression/purification and biophysics. The successful candidate will join a young and dynamic research team working at the interface of chemistry and biology.
Principal supervisor
Associate Professor Joseph Rogers, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology
Start
15th October 2025
Duration
3 years as a PhD student
Our group and research
The Rogers Lab is focused on the discovery of new research ligands and drug-leads for disease-linked protein targets. De novo cyclic peptides feature heavily, due to the promise of the modality, and the powerful chemical biology technologies that enable their discovery. We have built a variant of the mRNA display-based Random nonstandard Peptide Integrated Discovery (RaPID) cyclic peptide discovery method. We are at the forefront of applying this technology to unsolved biomedical problems. Read more about our lab here: https://www.rogers.science
Our department
The Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology is committed to research-based education and interdisciplinary research that supports the development and understanding of chemical and pharmacological properties of drugs and drug targets at the highest level for the benefit of society. We work as part of a dynamic academic community of research, education and innovation within the Pharmaceutical Sciences bridging Health Sciences and Life Sciences.
Information about the Department can be found at https://drug.ku.dk/
Job description
Your key tasks as a PhD student at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences are:
- Carrying through an independent research project under supervision
- Completing PhD courses or other equivalent education corresponding to approximately 30 ECTS points
- Participating in active research environments including a stay at another research team, preferably abroad
- Obtaining experience with teaching or other types of dissemination related to your PhD project
- Teaching of undergraduate students in pharmaceutical sciences
- Writing a PhD thesis on the grounds of your project
Key criteria for the assessment of applicants
Applicants must have qualifications corresponding to a master’s degree related to the subject area of the project, e.g. chemistry, molecular biology, biochemistry or biophysics. Please note that your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (two years).
Other important criteria are:
- Professional qualifications relevant to the PhD project
- Relevant work experience
- Previous publications
- The grade point average achieved
- Other professional activities
- A curious mind-set with a strong interest in a combination of proteins, peptides, molecular biology and/or biophysics.
- Language skills
Hands-on experience in any of following topics is desirable:
- Molecular biology techniques, such as recombinant DNA cloning, PCR, qPCR, NGS.
- Basic organic synthesis
- Solid phase peptide synthesis
- Protein expression and purification
- Linux operating systems and basic programming (e.g. Python).
Place of employment
The place of employment is at the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in a dynamic and international research environment. Our research facilities include modern laboratories, including NMR, mass spec facilities.
Terms of employment
The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week.
The position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of 3 years.
The employment is conditioned upon the applicant’s successful enrolment as a PhD student at the Graduate School at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project to the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences.
The PhD study must be completed in accordance with The Ministerial Order on the PhD programme (2013) and the Faculty’s rules on achieving the degree.
The PhD student is expected to be affiliated to the graduate programme in pharmaceutical sciences, Drug Research Academy.
Salary, pension, and terms of employment are in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State. Depending on seniority, the monthly salary starts at approximately 30,800 DKK/Roughly 4,100 EUR (April 2025 level) plus pension.
Application procedure
Your application, in English, must be submitted electronically by clicking “Apply now” below and must include the following documents in PDF format:
1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page)
2. CV incl. education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position
3. Certified copy of original Master of Science diploma and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in other language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted. As a prerequisite for a PhD fellowship employment, your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree. We encourage you to read more in the assessment database: https://ufm.dk/en/education/recognition-and-transparency/find-assessments/assessment-database. Please note that we might ask you to obtain an assessment of your education performed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science. Applicants with a Master´s degree from abroad should also enclose a short description of the grading scale used
4. Publication list (if possible)
5. Other information to consider: References and recommendations (if possible)
The deadline for applications is 1st August 2025, 23.59pm CET
We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.
The further process
After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorised recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor.
The assessor makes a non-prioritized assessment of the academic qualifications and experience with respect to the above-mentioned area of research, techniques, skills and other requirements listed in the advertisement.
Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant.
The applicant will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.
Interviews are expected to be held in week 34/35 2025 (18th-29th August 2025)
You can read about the recruitment process at http://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/
Questions
For further information, applicants may contact the principal supervisor, Joseph Rogers, e-mail: joseph.rogers@sund.ku.dk, phone: +45 3532 4214 or PhD coordinator Marianne W. Jørgensen, e-mail: marianne.joergensen@sund.ku.dk, phone: +45 3533 6449.
General information about PhD studies at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences is available at the Graduate School’s website: https://healthsciences.ku.dk/phd/guidelines/
For more information on working and living in Denmark visit http://ism.ku.dk (International staff mobility) and https://www.workindenmark.dk
The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.