Overview
The University of Lucerne is a modern, personal and dynamic human sciences university at the heart of Switzerland and Europe. In keeping with our guiding principle 'Moving Human Sciences', we focus on people and their institutions with our six faculties and two academies. Our aim is to develop the University of Lucerne into a pioneering, internationally visible centre for research and teaching in the human sciences.
The Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine promotes research and teaching in the fields of health, medicine, functional capacity and rehabilitation. Our mission is to improve health and well-being for all by creating a diverse, inclusive environment for innovative research, education and services.
As of the 1 September 2026 or by agreement, we are hiring a
Precise movement control arises from the coordinated activity of multiple muscle groups, which are regulated by distinct regions of the central nervous system (CNS). Alongside the corticospinal tract, the evolutionarily older reticulospinal system plays a fundamental role in motor control, contributing to essential functions such as posture, locomotion, and reaching across vertebrate species. Despite its functional importance, the physiology of the reticulospinal system in humans remains poorly understood compared with the extensively studied corticospinal system. Similarly, the vestibulospinal system is crucial for maintaining posture and balance, yet little is known about how it reorganizes following neurological injury.
The projects associated with this PhD position aim to investigate the contributions of the corticospinal, reticulospinal, and vestibulospinal systems to movement control and motor recovery in both healthy individuals and people with spinal cord injury (SCI). Evidence from animal studies suggests that the reticulospinal system possesses substantial capacity for neuroplastic adaptation, potentially supporting functional recovery after SCI. However, corresponding evidence in humans remains scarce, and little is known about the vestibulospinal contribution. Using state-of-the-art electrophysiological and behavioral methodologies, this research will generate new insights into motor physiology and neural plasticity, advancing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying motor recovery and potentially informing the development of more personalized neurorehabilitation strategies.
The projects are carried out at the Swiss Paraplegic Centre & Swiss Paraplegic Research in Nottwil, two of the Faculty's partner organizations. The research is conducted in collaboration with Balgrist University Hospital Zurich (PD Dr. Linard Filli).
Responsibilities (under supervision)
* Development and implementation of electrophysiological setup and experimental protocol (incl. troubleshooting)
* Recruitment of research participants, including patients with spinal cord injury and healthy volunteers
* Performance of electrophysiological and behavioral assessments
* Collection, management and analysis of datasets
Requirements
* University (Master's) degree in biology, biomedicine, neuroscience, medicine, or health sciences
* Good knowledge in data handling, analysis and statistics
* Basic to good knowledge in programming (MATLAB, Python)
* Advanced German or English language is mandatory
We offer
* Interdisciplinary collaboration
* Conduction of a project from setup and establishment through to data analysis and interpretation
* Interaction with healthy volunteers and patients with spinal cord injury
* Opportunity to present study results at national and international conferences, and to publish results in peer-reviewed journals
* Contribution to other projects of the study team
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