A successful candidate will be selected to work on a research project coordinated by the Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Law (Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven). The Center for Biomedical Ethics and Law at KU Leuven (www.cbmer.be) is an interdisciplinary research center that analyzes ethical and societal questions regarding innovations in biomedical research and healthcare. Staff members publish research in international academic journals, participate in national and international research projects, disseminate their findings through participation in national and international conferences, and are involved in providing advice to academic and professional organizations.
Website unit
Project
LifeLUNG (www.lifelung.eu) is a doctoral training network in the field of lung transplantation. Ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) is a clinically used platform to maintain active lung physiology outside the body. Starting November 1st 2025, LifeLUNG aims to advance EVLP technology to make organ engineering feasible prior to transplant. The project will i) increase our understanding of transplant failure through existing and newly developed models, ii) identify key immune factors and gene targets, iii) develop gene therapeutic agents and delivery tools to modulate target genes in the lung, and iv) explore the economic and ethical paradigms of genetic modification of lung transplantation. The LifeLUNG network is built around a community of leading European experts in lung transplantation and gene therapy. It will train 15 doctoral candidates (DCs) as the next generation of gene therapy innovators and research leaders both in academia and industry in an international, multidisciplinary and multisectoral environment. The network consists of 9 academic and 10 non-academic partners in 11 countries. The joint training programme will ignite responsible, cooperative research and innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship to maximize the career potential of the DCs, including international mobility and intersectoral secondments for all DCs. LifeLUNG is recruiting highly motivated candidates willing and excited to go the extra mile. LifeLUNG DCs are not only expected to deliver on their individual research projects, but also to actively participate in 6-monthly organized network-wide training weeks, intersectoral secondments, a variety of additional (online) training modules including transferable skills courses and participate in relevant workshops and conferences.
We are looking for two doctoral candidates that will investigate social and ethical aspects related to ex vivo gene therapy on lungs, especially those related to first-in-human trials, and anticipate the ethical aspects related to implementation in clinical practice.
The first doctoral candidate (DC13), focusing on lung donors will perform an ethical-legal analysis of the opt-out systems within Eurotransplant countries, and then conduct a cross-sectional survey to investigate the acceptability of genetic lung modification among prospective and living lung donors. Follow-up qualitative research will be performed with living lung donors in the Netherlands (30-40 interviews, prospective and those who have already donated), using interpretive qualitative methods. Finally, DC13 will perform an ethical conceptual analysis on the moral status of the genetically modified lung and consider the role of human enhancement in the context of genetic lung modification. (https://www.lifelung.eu/dc13-project-description) This PhD project is based at UMC Utrecht (The Netherlands). Main supervisor: Rieke van der Graaf. Co-supervisor: Pascal Borry
The second doctoral candidate (DC14), focusing on lung recipients, will use interpretive qualitative methods to develop an empirical and theoretical assessment of the experiences, beliefs, values and expectations of key stakeholders on genetic lung modification and expectations around improved quality of life, also perceived risks will be identified. DC14 will consider issues around informed consent, especially at the stage of clinical trials where not all risks may yet be fully known. Also, attitudes towards genetic modification as an experimental therapy will be investigated, which are relevant for recruitment in clinical trials (synergy DC15) as well as how societal attitudes may affect eventual clinical implementation. This research will involve open-ended semi-structured qualitative interviews, with patients (lung disease) and with healthcare professionals including transplant coordinators, transplantation physicians and nurses. Special attention will be given to reduce network homogeneity by using multiple entry points, which allows to generate a more balanced set of research participants. https://www.lifelung.eu/dc14-project-description This PhD project is based at KU Leuven (Belgium). Main supervisor: Pascal Borry. Co-supervisor: Rieke van der Graaf.
In the same Work Package, two other researchers are working on the health economics aspects (https://www.lifelung.eu/dc12-project-description) and translational research aspects (https://www.lifelung.eu/dc15-project-description).
Profile
– You hold a Master’s degree (no PhD) a Master’s degree in Philosophy, Law, Biomedical Sciences, Medicine, Bioethics, Social Sciences, another relevant degree (Master’s level) with a pronounced interest in area of research.
– You have experience with ethical conceptual thinking and with social scientific methods, such as qualitative methods.
– You are enthusiastic, ambitious, dynamic, flexible, and open to challenges and developments.
– You have good organizational skills and can work independently and make decisions.
– You have excellent social and written communication skills in English.
– You can work in an international multidisciplinary team.
– You are willing to contribute to collective activities of the research group (such as educational services, lab meetings, research proposals, supervision of bachelor and master students, etc.).
– You have not resided or carried out your main activity (e.g. work, studies) in Belgium (for DC14)/the Netherlands (for DC13) for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the start of his/her assignment.
– Willingness to travel
Skills and expertise that are viewed as an asset:
– Social and written communication skills in Dutch is desirable
Offer
The guaranteed PhD funding is for 36 months (i.e., EC funding, additional funding is possible, depending on the local Supervisor, and in accordance with the regular PhD time in the country of origin).
This advertisement on the KU Leuven jobsite has as goal to promote the vacancy. All applications need to be submitted through the online recruitment portal on the LifeLUNG website (www.lifelung.eu). Applications that were only submitted through this KU Leuven platform will not be considered eligible. Please consult carefully all information on the LifeLUNG website (www.lifelung.eu).
http://www.lifelung.eu
Interested?
For more information please contact Prof. dr. Pascal Borry, tel.: +32 16 37 95 17, mail: [email protected].
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Belgium
KU Leuven
On Campus (Full Time)
Research Assistantship (RA)
September 25, 2025
On Campus (Full Time)