Postdoc in Mucosal Immunology at Department of Immunology and Microbiology

We are looking for a highly motivated and dynamic postdoc for a 2-year position based in the Kloverpris Laboratory. The position will commence on 1 October, 2024, or as soon as possible hereafter.

The postdoc will be based at the University of Copenhagen working on a new small, randomised control trial on vaccine pandemic preparedness, 'VAXXAIR' (Clinical.Trials.gov) to perform multiple omics assays, including single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) on respiratory mucosal samples from longitudinally sampled trial participants.

Information on the department can be found at here.

Our research

Our lab is interested in understanding the immune response at mucosal barriers and surfaces to viral infections and vaccinations. A developing area of our research focuses on the airway mucosal immune response to vaccines. We have recently joined the VAXXAIR initiative, funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, to perform in-depth longitudinal sampling in healthy volunteers to develop infrastructure to perform small-scale in-depth mucosal sampling of the airways from trial participants in Denmark through strong teamwork with other local consortium members in the capital region of Denmark and with parallel international collaborators in the UK.

In addition, the lab also has a strong interest in the immune response to HIV infection within human tissues, particularly tissues associated with the gastrointestinal tract that is central to HIV pathology. We have developed this through our joint laboratory at the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI). Here, we aim to better understand the compromised immune reconstitution in these tissues during long-term antiretroviral treatment (ART), with particular interest in understanding the interplay between lymphocytes involved in maintaining the intestinal epithelial barrier and gut homeostasis during HIV infection. We pursue these studies on our well-characterized human tissue cohorts developed in South Africa.

We can access state-of-the-art facilities for advanced cellular assays and spatial in situ profiling on relevant human tissue sections. These platforms will be applied to novel research cohorts sampled at mucosal surfaces to better understand the immune response at the site of infection and vaccination.

Environment
We are a diverse team of local and international students, PhDs and Postdocs from Europe and Africa. We are uniquely positioned through our joint laboratories at AHRI in South Africa and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, which allows for direct collaboration within the same lab between two sites in South Africa and Denmark. This setup allows for state-of-the-art technologies applied to unique human tissue cohorts important to understand the site of infection or vaccine delivery. Our long-standing collaborations include leading research institutions in the US (Ragon, MIT, Harvard) and the UK (Oxford University and UCL) and beyond, which allows for an international research environment that will support the further development of the candidate.

Your job
The trial consortium will perform airway immunology characterization through in-depth immunological analysis of airway immunity following nasal live attenuated and intramuscular influenza vaccine. The VAXXAIR project serves two main purposes. First, to design, conduct and report a randomized controlled trial which will inform on the deepest level regarding mucosal immunity from two different vaccines, both on a humoral and a cellular level, with cutting-edge technologies and interpretative skills, while granulating the information anatomically also, to cover detailed analysis of immunity on multiple anatomical sites from the nasal cavity until the lower lobes of the lungs, apart from mucosal samples, also covering analysis of immunity in lymphoid tissue on several levels.

You will be part of a multidisciplinary consortium of lung clinicians and staff, clinical laboratories, and basic immunological laboratories that will work in a team-oriented effort at VAXXAIR. You will be based at the modern Panum Building located centrally in Copenhagen in the Kloverpris lab, which focuses on mucosal immune responses. Thus, you will engage with a national and international team of researchers to study respiratory responses after vaccination. This unit will likely expand to test more novel vaccine candidates in early clinical trial testing.

Profile
We are looking for a highly motivated and enthusiastic scientist with the following competencies and experience:

Essential experience and skills:

• You have a PhD in human immunology and infectious diseases
• You have prior experience in scRNAseq approaches applied to human primary tissue cells
• You are highly experienced in processing and working on human tissue samples
• You have great interpersonal and communication skills and ability to work in teams
• You have excellent English skills written and spoken

Desirable experience and skills:

• You have experience with tissue culture of primary human cells, cell lines, and human pathogens at BSL3 and BSL2, molecular cloning, lentiviral production, flow cytometry, PCR and qPCR, RNAscope tissue ISH platform and high-content microscopy
• You have experience with nucleic acid isolation from blood, skin tissue and primary cells, including associated quality control assays
• You have experience with human respiratory infections, i.e. SARS-CoV-2 studies, and ideally published in the field

Place of employment

The place of employment is at Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in dynamic and international research environment. Our research facilities include modern laboratories andaccess to state-of-the-art core facilities for single cell analysis platforms, including sequencing and spatial tissue profiling.

Terms of employment
The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week.

The position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of 2 years. The starting date is 1 October 2024 or after agreement.

Salary, pension and other conditions of employment are set in accordance with the Agreement between the Ministry of Taxation and AC (Danish Confederation of Professional Associations) or other relevant organisation. Currently, the monthly salary starts at 38,500 DKK/approx. 5,100 EUR (April 2024 level). Depending on qualifications, a supplement may be negotiated. The employer will pay an additional 17.1 % to your pension fund.

Foreign and Danish applicants may be eligible for tax reductions, if they hold a PhD degree and have not lived in Denmark the last 10 years.

The position is covered by the Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities 2020.

Questions
For further information, please contact associate professor Henrik Kløverpris, [email protected]

Foreign applicants may find this link useful: www.ism.ku.dk (International Staff Mobility).

Application procedure
Your online application must be submitted in English by clicking ‘Apply now’ below. Furthermore, your application must include the following documents/attachments – all in PDF format:

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page).
2. CV incl. education, work/research experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position.
3. A certified/signed copy of a) PhD certificate and b) Master of Science certificate. If the PhD is not completed, a written statement from the supervisor will do.
4. List of publications.

Deadline for applications: 17 June 2024, 23.59pm CET

We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process
After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor. Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.

You can read about the recruitment process at http://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

The applicant will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

Interviews are expected to be held in week 26.

The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.

Kilde: Jobnet.dk