Talented postdoctoral fellow in spatial immunology and infectious diseases
The Department and research group
The Department of Infectious Disease Immunology focuses on research and development of next-generation vaccines and diagnostic tools, primarily within tuberculosis (TB), chlamydia, and vaccine adjuvants. The Department conducts both basic and translational research and is highly rated internationally. As part of the SSI Center for Vaccine Research, we can efficiently move products from research into clinical trials. We collaborate closely with a large number of institutions and are externally funded by e.g. the National Institutes of Health, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, European Commission and the Danish Research Council.
The Tuberculosis Vaccine Research Group is an interdisciplinary group focused on understanding barriers of pulmonary protection and use data from pre-clinical and clinical studies to design novel vaccination strategies. You will be part of a dynamic, international team encompassing scientists, technicians and students, who are all passionate about global health, immunology and TB vaccine research.
The job
You will be part of The Novo Nordisk Foundation Initiative for Vaccines and Immunity (NIVI) as part of the group working on TB vaccine strategies. We are looking for a dedicated post doc with a profound interest in multiparameter imaging, complex data analysis and immunology.
As a Post Doc, you will use your skills in data analysis, imaging and flow cytometry to investigate how the early events after tuberculosis infection shape the subsequent immune response both at the cellular and spatial level. The ambition is to understand how novel immunization strategies can manipulate the microenvironment surrounding the Mtb bacteria in relation to protection and pathology.
The work will primarily consist of experiment design, data acquisition and data analysis with a significant weight on the latter. An integral part of the project is collaboration with international groups to stay on top of the latest research approaches in the field. You will become part of an interdisciplinary team, where your role will be to provide expertise on imaging and spatial analysis across different platforms.
Your qualifications:
- Highly motivated postdoctoral fellow holding a PhD degree in Life- or Data Sciences
- Experience with flow cytometry, imaging and complex data analysis is a major criterion and expertise in infectious diseases is highly desired
- Critical and creative thinking is expected
- Hard-working self-motivated mentality is key to the applicant’s success
- Dynamic, independent and goal orientated with a good team spirit
TB remains a global health emergency and lack of knowledge on protective immunity is a key obstacle for the development of more effective vaccines. Protection against lung TB is impeded by a delayed onset of adaptive immunity and an inability of immune cells to get in contact with infected cells in the granuloma core. Based on recent scientific advances and preliminary data from our group, you will investigate the hypothesis that vaccine-promoted formation of tertiary lymphoid structures, called iBALT, accelerates and maintains improved local immunity in the lung. iBALTs are already associated with improved outcome during TB infection (and several tumors) but little is known about their role and mechanism of action.
We have data showing that our newly developed TB vaccine, H107, is able to accelerate the formation of these iBALT structures, but the mechanisms on how vaccine-promoted iBALT is formed are incompletely understood. The first goal of this project is therefore to carefully study the cellular interaction networks in vaccinated animals early after TB infection to identify a signature for iBALT formation and use this information to test new vaccine strategies that induce iBALT already prior to infection. The second goal will be to define the role of iBALT in maintaining local memory T- and B cells in protective immunity in the airways.
We will reach these goals in collaboration with leading research institutions using cutting-edge techniques incl. advanced murine models and multiplex imaging. If our hypotheses are correct, it could lead to new paths for vaccine development against TB and other airway infections.
Conditions of employment
The employment is of 3 years duration.
The employment will be in accordance with the terms of the collective agreement between the Ministry of Taxation and the Danish Federation of Professional Associations (AC-overenskomsten) and the Danish Ministry of Taxation’s circular concerning the job structure for scientific staff working with research at sector research institutions (Stillingsstruktur for videnskabeligt personale med forskningsopgaver ved sektorforskningsinstitutioner).
Your research qualifications will be assessed by a scientific assessment committee in accordance with the current Danish rules for employment of scientific staff working with research at sector research institutions in Denmark. In order to assess the research qualifications, a list of publications and 2-3 scientific works must be submitted.
More information
For further details and informal enquiries please contact Group PI Rasmus Mortensen +45 32 68 8309.
Application:
Send your application with CV and proof of educations electronically Click “apply” to send your job application. We ecpect to invite candidates for jobinterviews in week 20.
Please note in your application that you found the job at Jobindex
