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Offering a thesis opportunity?
Please send the following form duly completed to Student Services:
Form for offering a thesis opportunity
Short Description of the Thesis/Topic:
We are seeking a motivated Bachelor or Master student to participate in the functional characterization of UCP1 mutants. The student will be trained in: Mitochondrial protein expression in E. coli and refolding protocols, thermal denaturation assays to assess protein stability, electrophysiological measurements (patch-clamp) to analyze proton transport, supporting techniques including SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis
This project offers a unique opportunity to combine biochemical, biophysical, and electrophysiological methods to investigate the structure, function relationship of a key mitochondrial protein.
Required Skills and Knowledge:
Some familiarity with biophysics and laboratory practices would be an advantage, though not essential.
Planned duration of the thesis project:
November/December to May/June
Language of the Thesis:
English
Name of the Institute/Clinic/Unit:
Institute of Physiology and Biophysics, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinärplatz 1, 1210 Vienna
Contact Person for the Thesis:
Giorgia Roticiani: Giorgia.Roticiani@vetmeduni.ac.at
Interested candidates may reply until:
asap
Short Description of the Thesis/Topic:
Oxytocin is a hormone that influences social relationships between animals. In this new study we will test how oxytocin influences the ability of dogs to learn from their owners. We are looking for 2-4 highly motivated students or interns to join our team. Students will be guided on how to carry out behavioral tests with dogs and evaluate dog behavior. This project can serve as a master or diploma thesis. It will require between 10 to 15 weekly hours of data collection, starting between January or March and until data collection is completed.
Required Skills and Knowledge:
high motivation and willingness to learn about dog behavior
Additional Information:
This project is supeervised by Prof. Ludwig Juber and Dr. Shany Dror.
The time frame is flexible and students are welcome to join the entire project or help in only part of it.
Duration of the thesis:
01.01.2026 to 01.06.2025
Language of the Thesis:
English
Name of the Institute/Clinic/Unit:
The Clever Dog Lab, Messerli Research Institute
Contact Person for the Thesis/Topic:
Shany Dror,
Shany.Dror@vetmeduni.ac.at
Feedback from students requested by:
asap
Short Description of the Thesis/Topic:
This thesis will focus on one component of the larger European climate-zoonoses study by examining the relationship between climate hazards (e.g., storms, increased precipitation, global warming, heat waves, cold waves) and zoonoses in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, and Switzerland.
The student will conduct a systematic literature screening following the PRISMA guidelines, assess article quality using the CASP quality assessment framework, extract and synthesize data on zoonotic diseases. Epidemiological metrics used to evaluate impact on human health include incidence, prevalence, mortality, and number of cases. The output will include a database (Excel) of climate hazard-zoonoses associations and quantified impacts.
Required Skills and Knowledge:
• Background in epidemiology, veterinary medicine, or public health
• Understanding of zoonotic disease transmission
• German and English language
• Proficiency in Excel
• Team collaboration
• Organisational skills (capacity for documenting performed work)
Not necessary, but would be an advantage:
• Knowledge of systematic review methodology
Additional Information:
• Part of the Austrian Climate Research Programme (ACRP) funded project (FO999925057)
• Results will contribute to the larger European-wide systematic review
• Opportunity to co-author scientific publications
Duration of the thesis:
6 month from November 2025 to May 2026
Language of the Thesis:
English (with German abstract)
Name of the Institute/Clinic/Unit:
Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Contact Person for the Thesis/Topic:
Associate Professor Amélie Desvars-Larrive
Email: amelie.desvars-larrive@vetmeduni.ac.at ext 3538
Mrs Ana Maria Perez Arredondo
Email: ana.perez@vetmeduni.ac.at ext 3528
Feedback from students requested by:
As soon as possible.
Short Description of the Thesis/Topic:
This thesis will investigate the relationship between climate hazards (e.g., storms, global warming, floods, droughts, changes in precipitation patterns) on zoonoses in Southern European countries (Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Gibraltar, Greece, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain). The student will conduct a systematic literature screening following the PRISMA guidelines, assess article quality using the CASP quality assessment framework, extract and synthesize data on zoonotic diseases. Epidemiological metrics used to evaluate impact on human health include incidence, prevalence, mortality, and number of cases. The output will include a database (Excel) of climate hazard-zoonoses associations and quantified impacts
Required Skills and Knowledge:
• Background in epidemiology, veterinary medicine, or public health
• Understanding of zoonotic disease transmission
• English language
• Proficiency in Excel
• Team collaboration
• Organisational skills (capacity for documenting performed work)
Not necessary, but would be an advantage:
• Knowledge of systematic review methodology
• Knowledge of Spanish
Additional Information:
• Part of the Austrian Climate Research Programme (ACRP) funded project (FO999925057)
• Results will contribute to the larger European-wide systematic review
• Opportunity to co-author scientific publications
Duration of the thesis:
6 month from November 2025 to May 2026
Language of the Thesis:
English (with German abstract)
Name of the Institute/Clinic/Unit:
Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Contact Person for the Thesis/Topic:
Associate Professor Amélie Desvars-Larrive
Email: amelie.desvars-larrive@vetmeduni.ac.at ext 3538
Mrs Ana Maria Perez Arredondo
Email: ana.perez@vetmeduni.ac.at ext 3528
Feedback from students requested by:
As soon as possible.
Short Description of the Thesis/Topic:
In this project you will video record dogs undergoing ECG examinations. The goal of the project is to validate a novel contactless method for measuring dogs' cardiopulmonary signals. The contactless method, based on computer-vision, can estimate dogs' heart and breathing rates from videos alone, without the need to attach any sensors on the animals. This promises to significantly improve animal welfare as well as reduce risks for veterinarians. However, this method has not been validated yet: it is not known how well it performs compared to the golden standard (ECG), which is where your thesis comes into play.
The main responsibilities during the internship will include: video recording dogs that will be undergoing ECG examinations at the small animal clinic (the examinations will be conducted by a cardiologist); saving the videos and pictures of the ECG plots on our server; writing a detailed protocol documenting your activities, the patients and progress. A sample of 50 dogs has to be recorded from and some flexibility in your time schedule will be needed in order to be present to the ECG appointments (the more flexible the schedule, the more appointments you can attend, the shorter it will take to record 50 dogs).
Required Skills and Knowledge:
• Preferred: Experience with interpreting ECG plots
• Preferred: experience with video recording and editing
• Flexible time schedule is necessary, to be able to attend most of the cardiologist's appointments
Additional Information:
If this sounds interesting to you, and you have enough time to dedicate to this project, please contact Dr. Lonardo (lucrezia.lonardo@vetmeduni.ac.at) indicating your time availability and in which semester you are. It is is also encouraged to attach a cv.
Duration of the thesis:
end of October 2025 to end of April 2026
Language of the Thesis:
English
Name of the Institute/Clinic/Unit:
Messerli Research Institute
Contact Person for the Thesis/Topic:
Contact: Dr. Lucrezia Lonardo, PhD (lucrezia.lonardo@vetmeduni.ac.at)
Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ludwig Huber (ludwig.huber@vetmeduni.ac.at)
Feedback from students requested by:
asap
Short Description of the Thesis/Topic:
Oxytocin is a hormone that influences social relationships between animals. In this new study we will test how oxytocin influences the ability of dogs to learn from their owners. We are looking for 2-4 highly motivated students or interns to join our team. Students will be guided on how to carry out behavioral tests with dogs and evaluate dog behavior. This project can serve as a master or diploma thesis. It will require between 10 to 15 weekly hours of data collection, starting between January or March and until data collection is completed.
Additional Information:
This project is supeervised by Prof. Ludwig Juber and Dr. Shany Dror.
The time frame is flexible and students are welcome to join the entire project or help in only part of it
Required Skills and Knowledge:
high motivation and willingness to learn about dog behavior
Planned duration of the thesis project:
01.01.2026 to 01.06.2025
Language of the Thesis:
English
Name of the Institute/Clinic/Unit:
The Clever Dog Lab, Messerli Research Institute
Contact Person for the Thesis:
Shany Dror,
Shany.Dror@vetmeduni.ac.at
Interested candidates may reply until:
asap
Short Description of the Thesis/Topic:
For constructing a comprehensive protein network, different types of data such as protein–protein interaction, functional similarity (ontology/pathway), and genetic interaction data can be utilized. Comparing these different types of data across closely related strains of the Bacillus cereus (B. cereus) family can shed light on the level of correlation and completeness of each type of data, as well as differences in the data coverage of different Bacillus sub-strains across the databases. For this purpose, data from different complementary databases can be compared statistically and visually.
This thesis aims to perform a comparative network analysis of the following strains of the B. cereus family (by using unique UniProt identifier, i.e., UniProt accession numbers, or NCBI Gene IDs, or Ensembl IDs):
- B. cereus ATCC 14579
- B. anthracis Ames
- B. subtilis 168
- B. cereus AH187
The following databases and datatypes should be checked to evaluate the availability of the data for each mentioned strains:
Databases to be checked: NCBI, UniProt, IntAct, Reactome, BioGRID, STRING, GOA (QuickGO/UniProt-GOA), KEGG.
Data types to be evaluated: GO annotations, gene annotations, KEGG pathway assignments, and STRING protein–protein interactions.
Required Skills and Knowledge:
- Understanding of protein databases and biological networks
- Advanced Python proficiency
- Experience with data cleaning
Additional Information:
The duration of the work is approximately 6 months. The starting date is as soon as possible.
Duration of the thesis:
03.01.2026 to 03.07.2026
Language of the Thesis:
English
Name of the Institute/Clinic/Unit:
Microbiology Institute/Center of Pathobiology
Contact Person for the Thesis/Topic:
Masoumeh Alinaghi, PhD, Masoumeh.alinaghihossein@vetmeduni.ac.at
Feedback from students requested by:
01/2025
Short Description of the Thesis/Topic:
In this project you will video record dogs undergoing ECG examinations. The goal of the project is to validate a novel contactless method for measuring dogs' cardiopulmonary signals. The contactless method, based on computer-vision, can estimate dogs' heart and breathing rates from videos alone, without the need to attach any sensors on the animals. This promises to significantly improve animal welfare as well as reduce risks for veterinarians. However, this method has not been validated yet: it is not known how well it performs compared to the golden standard (ECG), which is where your thesis comes into play.
The main responsibilities during the internship will include: video recording dogs that will be undergoing ECG examinations at the small animal clinic (the examinations will be conducted by a cardiologist); saving the videos and pictures of the ECG plots on our server; writing a detailed protocol documenting your activities, the patients and progress. A sample of 50 dogs has to be recorded from and some flexibility in your time schedule will be needed in order to be present to the ECG appointments (the more flexible the schedule, the more appointments you can attend, the shorter it will take to record 50 dogs).
Required Skills and Knowledge:
• Preferred: Experience with interpreting ECG plots
• Preferred: experience with video recording and editing
• Flexible time schedule is necessary, to be able to attend most of the cardiologist's appointments
Additional Information:
If this sounds interesting to you, and you have enough time to dedicate to this project, please contact Dr. Lonardo (lucrezia.lonardo@vetmeduni.ac.at) indicating your time availability and in which semester you are. It is is also encouraged to attach a cv.
Duration of the thesis:
end of October 2025 to end of April 2026
Language of the Thesis:
English
Name of the Institute/Clinic/Unit:
Messerli Research Institute
Contact Person for the Thesis/Topic:
Contact: Dr. Lucrezia Lonardo, PhD (lucrezia.lonardo@vetmeduni.ac.at)
Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ludwig Huber (ludwig.huber@vetmeduni.ac.at)
Feedback from students requested by:
asap
Short Description of the Thesis/Topic:
We are seeking a motivated Bachelor or Master student to participate in the functional characterization of UCP1 mutants. The student will be trained in: Mitochondrial protein expression in E. coli and refolding protocols, thermal denaturation assays to assess protein stability, electrophysiological measurements (patch-clamp) to analyze proton transport, supporting techniques including SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis
This project offers a unique opportunity to combine biochemical, biophysical, and electrophysiological methods to investigate the structure, function relationship of a key mitochondrial protein.
Required Skills and Knowledge:
Some familiarity with biophysics and laboratory practices would be an advantage, though not essential.
Duration of the Thesis:
November/December to May/June
Language of the Thesis:
English
Name of the Institute/Clinic/Unit:
Institute of Physiology and Biophysics, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinärplatz 1, 1210 Vienna
Contact Person for the Thesis/Topic:
Giorgia Roticiani: Giorgia.Roticiani@vetmeduni.ac.at
Feedback from students requested by:
As soon as possible
Short Description of the Thesis/Topic:
With this behavioral study, we are investigating dogs’ sensitivity to human iconic gestures—actions that resemble the movement or manipulation of an object (e.g., moving hands up and down to mimic the flapping of bird wings). Successful applicants will have the opportunity to test dogs in a two-choice task, where the dog should choose between two moving apparatuses based on the experimenter's gesture. The main responsibilities and required knowledge during the internship will include: recruiting dogs’ caregivers, for example through our database and social media, testing dogs in behavioral experiments, coding behavioral videos, reading scientific literature and placing your findings into context and writing experimental protocols and documenting progress. If you are interested in dogs’ behavior and cognition, this internship could be a great opportunity for you.
Required Skills and Knowledge:
Interest in, and ideally experience with, dogs
Good interpersonal skills (to recruit and interact with dogs' caregivers)
Flexible time management and the ability to plan and work independently in the lab.
Additional Information:
What we offer: International, friendly, and supportive team
A well-equipped environment for behavioral research
Training and experience in animal cognition research, dog handling, and behavioral data collection.
Interested candidates may reply until: As soon as possible
Duration: At least 4 months
Language of the Thesis:
English
Name of the Institute/Clinic/Unit:
Messerli Research Institute, Clever Dog Lab
Contact Person for the Thesis/Topic:
Contact: Ana Tomasic, PhD candidate (ana.tomasic@vetmeduni.ac.at)
Supervisor: Dr. Christoph Völter (Christoph.Voelter@vetmeduni.ac.at)
Feedback from students requested by:
As soon as possible
Short Description of the Thesis/Topic:
Colitis is a frequent and serious problem in horses as well as humans. The pathophysiological mechanisms are supposed to involve a complex crosstalk between immune cells and epithelial cells that results in destruction of the epithelial barrier and further progression of disease. This project aims to establish a co-culture model of equine colon epithelium and immune cells to characterize the signalling pathways involved and to test new therapeutic approaches.
Required Skills and Knowledge:
High motivation, experience in cell culture work and/or molecular biology;
BSc degree in Biology, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Biomedicine or a related subject
Further Information:
We offer a highly supportive team, established methods and guidance by supervisor and colleagues.
Language of the Thesis:
German or English
Duration of the thesis:
6 months
Name of the Institute/Clinic/Unit:
Institute of Physiology, Pathophysiology and Biophysics, Department of Biomedical Sciences & Clinic for Horses, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
Contact Person for the Thesis:
Franziska Dengler - Franziska.dengler@vetmdeuni.ac.at
Jessika Cavalleri - Jessika.cavalleri@vetmeduni.ac.at
Feedback from students requested by:
as soon as possible, flexible starting date
Please send a short CV and motivation letter.
Short Description of the Thesis/Topic:
Topics include:
• The role of deleterious mutations for adaptation and maintenance of variation.
• Long-term adaptation of local Drosophila populations.
• The evolution of ageing.
• Inference of selection signatures from time-series data.
• Studying the genotype-phenotype map.
• Stabilising selection during polygenic adaptation.
• Evolution of regulatory networks.
Required Skills and Knowledge:
Over the past years, Vienna has developed into one of the leading centres of population genetics. The Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics has been founded to provide a training opportunity for PhD students to build on this excellent on-site expertise.
We invite applications from highly motivated and outstanding students with a love for evolutionary research and a background in one of the following disciplines: evolutionary genetics, functional genetics, theoretical or experimental population genetics, bioinformatics, mathematics, statistics.
Additional Information:
Only complete applications (application form, CV, motivation letter, university certificates, indication of the two preferred topics in a single pdf) received by 14 May 2025 will be considered. Two letters of recommendation need to be sent directly by the referees.
PhD students will receive a monthly salary based on currently € 2.464,80 before tax according to the regulations of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
All information about the about available topics, the training program and the application procedure can be found at www.popgen-vienna.at
Planned duration of the thesis project:
01.07.2025 to 01.09.2028
Language of the Thesis:
English
Name of the Institute/Clinic/Unit:
Inst. für Populationsgenetik
Contact Person for the Thesis:
Mag. Elisabeth Wagner-Weigerstorfer PhD
elisabeth.wagner-weigerstorfer@vetmeduni.ac.at
Coordinator, Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics
Institut für Populationsgenetik, Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien
T +43 1 25077 4302
Interested candidates may reply until:
14.05.2025