One PhD position in pharmacy is available in the group of Professor Carsten Uhd Nielsen at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark. Starting date of the position will be 1 April 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.

Project background
Amino acid transporters have been implicated as possible drug targets in a number of diseases such as notably cancer. The inherent substrate overlap between amino acid transporters makes it difficult to find selective inhibitors that can be used to investigate the role of amino acid transporters and to develop inhibitors as drugs. To solve this problem, this project will investigate if allosteric inhibitors can be designed towards a number of transporters sharing the same protein structure folds (the LeuT-fold). The chosen transporters are LAT1, SNAT2 and PAT1 as these have all been implicated in cancer. The project will do this via computational modeling and design using AlphaFold3.0 and available protein structures and ligand information, through make-on-demand compound libraries, and in vitro based cell systems. The aim is to find specific and selective inhibitors that will change how cancer cells grow and that can eventually be developed into a novel type of drugs.

Research group
The Drug Transporters in ADME group works with drug transporters from the SLC and ABC superfamilies mainly in cell cultures and preclinical animals to understand their role in drug targeting and in overall ADME. The group is international, cross-disciplinary and gender-balanced. The successful candidate will receive excellent training, mentoring and career development support. 

Qualifications
Specific Requirements

• MSc in Pharmacy;

• Experience with amino acid transporters;

• Experience with pharmaceutical application of drug transporters;

• Strong motivation and interest in working at the interface between pharmacy and chemistry;

• Excellent skills in written and spoken English and Danish.

The PhD position will be as 5+3.

The Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy is one of four departments at the Faculty of Science, SDU and is located in Odense. At the department we contribute to solving some of society’s greatest challenges within energy, environment, health, and sustainability. We succeed because we build bridges between disciplines and transcend traditional boundaries. Our interdisciplinary mindset is not only a fundamental condition, but also our strength. And it is a strength that ensures our research and education are recognized both nationally and internationally.

Our vision is to create and apply knowledge across the natural sciences. We are unique in housing research within physics, chemistry, and pharmacy under one department, which provides excellent opportunities to explore the intersections between these disciplines.

Read more about our vision here: https://www.sdu.dk/en/om-sdu/institutter-centre/fysik_kemi_og_farmaci/ominstituttet

The Ph.D. candidate will be part of the Pharmacy section: https://www.sdu.dk/da/forskning/farmaci-sektionen/forskere

Application deadline: 6 february 2026 at 23:59 hours local Danish time
Please see the full call, including how to apply, on www.sdu.dk