Two postdoctoral fellows in Mucosal immunology : Gothenburg, Sweden

Two postdoctoral positions are available in the Mucosal Immunology group headed by Professor Nils Lycke at the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Gothenburg. The research in our group is financed by two EU-projects, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Swedish Cancer Foundation and the Swedish Research Council. We focus on mucosal vaccines and adjuvant development and have a broad range of research topics within the group. These topics include mechanistic studies of adjuvants on targeted cells of the innate immune system and how to improve vaccine efficacy by exploring nanoparticle formulations and fusion protein targeting of dendritic cells. Adaptive immunity is studied in the context of a universal flu vaccine and mucosal vaccines against norovirus infections. We are also internationally recognized for our work on gut IgA B cells and the unique functions of the germinal center reaction in Peyer´s patches (see Nat Rev Immunol 12:593, 2012). Finally, a subgroup is dissecting mechanisms responsible for the powerful tolerogenic effects on autoimmune conditions that is conveyed by the CTA1R9K-DD tolerogenic platform, a project that is a collaboration between our academic group and the Toleranzia AB company in Gothenburg.
The successful candidates will join a team of 12-15 members with expertise in state-of-the-art animal models for infectious diseases and autoimmunity, proteomics and systems biology approaches to adjuvant function.

Subject area
Mucosal immunology

Specific subject description
1) The first postdoctoral fellow will utilize state of the art animal models and in vivo/in vitro phenotypic and functional assays to assess the role of dendritic and follicular dendritic cells for the adjuvant and tolerogenic effects induced by enzymatically active CTA1-DD or inactive mutant CTA1R9K-DD. The candidate should be highly motivated, have the ability to work independently but also enjoy contributing and working within a team.
2) The second postdoctoral fellow will work with the mucosal immune response after oral immunizations. Focus will be placed on the development of gut IgA B cell responses and the regulatory control of such responses. Special emphasis will be given to understanding the development of long term memory responses and how these best could be achieved by the development of a nanoparticle based vaccine that combines targeting of dendritic cell subsets with immunomodulation. Various infectious disease models will be at hand such as the influenza and norovirus challenge models.

Job assignments
See description above

Eligibility
An achieved doctoral degree is compulsory for a position as postdoctor at Göteborg University. The doctoral thesis shall be in a relevant area according to the specific position stated here. Since a position as postdoctor aims to give new holders of the doctorate the opportunity mainly to strengthen and develop their scholarly proficiency, we aim for those who have a doctoral degree not older than 3 years counting from last date of application.

The qualifications for academic positions are given in Chapter 4, Section 3 – 4 of the Higher Education Ordinance.

Assessment
The successful candidates will have documented training in immunology (Ph.D), with considerable practical expertise in a broad range of immunological techniques, including multi-color flow cytometry, primary cell isolation and an in vivo/in vitro cellular assays and experience with in vivo murine models. The candidates should be highly motivated, have the ability to work independently, but also enjoy contributing and working within a team. The candidates will be selected on the basis of merits and prior experience in the research field. The short listed candidates will be interviewed and finally a few competitive candidates will be called for an interview on site at MIVAC.