About the opportunity
What this programme is offering
Thirteen International Fellowships in Metabolism
Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen seeks 4 PhD students and 9 Postdoc fellows to commence on November 15, 2026, at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR).
The PhD student and Postdoc fellowships are part of the CBMR International PhD & Postdoc Program.
Job description
The fellowships are aimed at early-career researchers with a basic science background or clinicians who aspire to a career in academia. We are particularly interested in candidates who are familiar with integrative research approaches within the broad area of basic cardiometabolic research with an application towards human pathophysiology.
CBMR’s mission is to lead collaborative interdisciplinary research from single-cell genomics to whole-body systems, transforming the basic understanding of cardiometabolic health, and accelerating its translation into prevention and treatment strategies. For more information about CBMR, please visit our website.
Research projects open for applications
The thirteen research projects and their corresponding Principal Investigators are listed below. More information about each of the positions and how to apply can be found at CBMR International PhD & Postdoc Program.
PhD projects
1. Principal Investigator Associate Professor Marta Guasch-Ferré
“The Molecular Links between Plant-based Diets and Cardiometabolic Health: A Multi-
Omics Approach”
2. Principal Investigator Professor Simon Rasmussen
“Precision Medicine from Graph-Based Medical Digital Twins”
3. Principal Investigator Professor Ruth Loos
“Genetics of MRI-derived skeletal muscle features and cardiometabolic health”
4. Principal Investigator Associate Professor Christoffer Clemmensen
“Decoding physiological drivers of variability in weight gain in obesity”
Postdoc projects
1. Principal Investigator Professor Juleen R Zierath
“Therapeutic Potential of Urocortin II to Protect Muscle Mass and Function”
2. Principal Investigator Associate Professor Jonas Treebak
“Translational relevance of digital biomarkers for continuous glucose monitoring in mice and humans”
3. Principal Investigator Associate Professor Zach Gerhart-Hines
“LIGTHEN-UP: Leveraging Incretins and Growth Hormone to Engineer a Unique Pharmacotherapy”
4. Principal Investigator Professor Torben Hansen
“Deciphering the Oral–Liver Axis: Integrative Cross-Organ Multi-Omics Analysis”
5. Principal Investigator Professor Kei Sakamoto
“Beyond canonical energy sensing: identification of novel isoform-selective metabolite modulators of AMPK”
6. Principal Investigator Associate Professor Tune Pers
“Energy Expenditure Control by Hypothalamic Lmx1a Neurons”
7. Principal Investigator Associate Professor Atul Deshmukh
“Therapeutic targeting of IGSF9 in insulin resistance”
8. Principal Investigator Associate Professor Thomas Frimurer
“Development of an Enabling Computational Pipeline for Peptide Ligand Design: Application to Y4R Antagonist Discovery”
9. Principal Investigator Associate Professor Tuomas Kilpeläinen
“Improving scalability and power in cardiometabolic GWAS through robust modeling of missing phenotypes”
Questions
Questions regarding the CBMR International PhD & Postdoc Program can be directed to Senior Advisor Sarah Christoffersen
International applicants can find more information on the International Staff Mobility webpage.
Application
This advert is an extract and cannot be used as the basis for an application. The full text for each of the eight research projects, as well as a link to the application system, are available at CBMR International PhD & Postdoc Program.
How to apply