Extracurricular Internship in In Situ Cryo-Electron Tomography

Human Technopole; Milano; In loco; EUR 7600 - 10.000; Part-time

Vantaggi offerti da questo lavoro

Canteen service

Guest House upon availability

Training opportunities

Descrizione del lavoro

Human Technopole (HT) invites applications for an internship in the Structural Biology Center, Milan. The project focuses on developing and applying cryogenic electron tomography workflows to study cellular organization in disease-relevant models, combining sample prep, imaging and computational analysis.

The intern will support tissue and organoid work, help process cryo-ET data, and document results within a collaborative research team. MSc candidates with cryo-EM experience are preferred.

Competenze

• MSc in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Structural Biology, Biophysics or related discipline.
• Hands-on experience with biological sample preparation for cryogenic electron microscopy, including cryo-EM grid preparation.
• Practical research experience with mammalian cell culture and fluorescence microscopy, including analysis of biological imaging data.

Mansioni

• Support preparation and optimization of biological samples for cryo-FIB milling and cryo-ET.
• Contribute to implementation and optimization of workflows for in situ structural investigation of tissue material.
• Support processing, analysis and interpretation of cryo-ET datasets.
• Document experimental activities and present results within the research team.

Conoscenze

Cryo-EM sample prep

Mammalian cell culture

Fluorescence microscopy data analysis

Linux environments

Python programming

Molecular biology techniques

Formazione

MSc in Biochemistry/Biophysics/Structural Biology

Strumenti

Cryo-EM

Linux

Python

Descrizione del lavoro

Build the science that shapes the future of human health.

Application closing date: 25.09.2026

Human Technopole (HT) is an interdisciplinary life science research institute, created and supported by the Italian Government, with the aim of developing innovative strategies to improve human health. HT is composed of five Centers: Neurogenomics, Computational Biology, Structural Biology, Genomics, and Health Data Science. The Centers work together to enable interdisciplinary research and to create an open, collaborative environment that will help promote life science research both nationally and internationally.

The Structural Biology Center at HT develops and applies advanced structural biology approaches to investigate molecular organization and mechanisms relevant to human health.

In the Erdmann research group within the Structural Biology Center, we develop in situ cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) and advanced cryogenic sample-preparation workflows to investigate molecular organization directly within cells and complex biological specimens, combining electron tomography, focused ion beam (FIB) milling, correlative imaging, and computational analysis.

Internship Project Description

We are seeking a motivated intern to contribute to research on cellular organization in disease-relevant biological models. The project aims to develop and apply advanced cryogenic electron tomography workflows for structural investigation of complex biological specimens, combining sample preparation, imaging and computational analysis across spatial scales.

Your Main Tasks And Responsibilities

• Support the preparation and optimization of biological samples, including tissues and organoids, for cryo-FIB milling and cryo-ET.
• Contribute to the implementation and optimization of workflows for the in situ structural investigation of tissue material.
• Support the processing, analysis and interpretation of cryo-ET datasets.
• Document experimental activities and present results within the research team.

Requirements

Essential requirements

• MSc in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Structural Biology, Biophysics or a related discipline.
• Hands-on experience with biological sample preparation for cryogenic electron microscopy, including cryo-EM grid preparation.
• Practical research experience with mammalian cell culture and fluorescence microscopy, including analysis of biological imaging data.

Preferred Requirements

• Experience with single-particle cryo-EM data collection and/or image processing.
• Experience working in Linux environments and/or basic programming experience, for example Python.
• Experience with molecular biology techniques such as cloning or transfection.

Organizational And Social Skills

• Excellent communication and team working skills.
• Ability to work carefully and independently, organize and document experimental work, and learn new methods in an interdisciplinary research environment.

Why Human Technopole

HT seeksscientific excellence, we recruit the best scientific talents through international, open calls.

Our working environment isinternational,friendlyandinclusive. Our scientistswork together across disciplineson research topics of biomedical relevance,leveraging synergiesbetween their diverse skillsets and methodological approaches.

We believe thathighly diverse teams yield the best and most innovative results.

We engage inoutward-facing scientific activitiesaimed at benefiting the national and internationalresearch community.Trainingis also at the heart of our activity, with initiatives and opportunities for our staff, including scientific courses, conferences and workshops.

What We Offer

• Canteen service.
• Guest House upon availability, if needed.
• Access to all training initiatives targeted to HT scientists.
• International research environment with networking and training opportunities.
• Hands-on experience with real-world research projects addressing compelling scientific questions and applying state-of-the-art technologies.
• Supervision by experienced researchers providing personalized feedback and career advice.

Special consideration will be given to candidates who are part of the protected categories list, according to L. 68/99.

Number of positions offered:

1

Internship duration:

6 months.

Reimbursement:

800€ gross per month

The position is based in

Milan.

The Foundation reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to extend, suspend, modify, revoke, or cancel this job posting without giving rise to any rights or claims whatsoever in favor of the candidates; the Foundation reserves, however, the right not to proceed with the awarding of the above-described assignment due to the effect of supervening regulatory provisions and/or obstructive circumstances.