1) Human Exposure and Toxicological Effects of Tire Additives

Duration of contract: 3 years 
Planned starting date: ASAP 
Place of work: University of Vienna
Main supervisor: Thilo Hofmann
Supervision team: Göksu Çelik

Project description:

Tire wear particles (TWPs) are emerging environmental contaminants with growing concern for human health. TWPs contain various chemical additives, such as antioxidants, plasticizers, and vulcanization agents, that are used in the tire manufacturing process to enhance tire performance and durability. Despite their widespread presence in urban air and dust, the extent of human exposure and the associated toxicological effects of these additives remain poorly understood. This PhD project aims to investigate both the human exposure and health impacts of tire-derived chemicals, focusing on exposure scenarios through inhalation.

The successful candidate will work at the interface of environmental chemistry and toxicology to: (1) develop and apply analytical methods for processing and quantifying TWPs and their leachates, (2) assess human exposure through airborne sampling and simulated lung fluids, and (3) evaluate toxicological effects of tire additives using in vitro assays to assess oxidative stress and cytotoxicity on human lung cells. The project combines laboratory-based experiments with fieldwork and will contribute essential data for improving chemical risk assessments of non-exhaust traffic emissions.

2) Alternative lifestyles of chlamydiae

Duration of contract: Up to 4 years 
Planned starting date: October 2025
Place of work: University of Vienna
Main supervisor: Matthias Horn
Supervision team: Astrid Collingro

Project description:

Chlamydiae are well-known human pathogens, with Chlamydia trachomatis being one of the leading causes of preventable blindness and sexually transmitted diseases. However, chlamydiae are also widely distributed in the environment, where they live primarily in protists such as amoebae. The obligate intracellular lifestyle of chlamydiae is ancient and can be traced back hundreds of millions of years. Recently, metagenomic studies have identified members of the Chlamydiota phylum in anaerobic environments and in phototrophic protists (algae). The aim of this work is to shed light on these unexpected chlamydial lifestyles. The project will involve protist cultivation and infection experiments, advanced fluorescence microscopy methods, genomics and transcriptomics approaches, and bioinformatics analyses. It will contribute to our understanding of the environmental lifestyle of chlamydiae and the emergence of their unique host-associated lifestyle.