Talented postdoctoral fellow in bioinformatics or computational biology

The tuberculosis vaccine research group in The Department of Infectious Disease Immunology at Statens Serum Institut (SSI) is seeking a highly motivated and talented postdoctoral fellow to commence on March 1, 2023, or after agreement.

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

We are looking for a dedicated post doc with a profound interest in bioinformatics, complex data analysis and immunology. As a Post Doc, you will use your skills in data analysis to investigate how the early events after tuberculosis infection shape the subsequent immune response both on the cellular level and in 2-D. This will be done in collaboration with other scientists in the group than can assist in validating your findings with flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. The ambition is to understand how immunization with our new H107 vaccine (Woodwort et al., 2021 Nat Comms) manipulates the microenvironment of TB lesions and facilitate trafficking of T cells in the lung.

The work will mostly consist of experiment design and data analysis. Wet lab work is not mandatory, but can be included if desired. An integral part of the project is collaboration with University of Basel, where some of the leading scientists in the field will train you in analysis of spatial transcriptome data. You will become part of an interdisciplinary team, where your role will be to provide expertise on omics and single cell analysis platforms.

Qualifications

• Highly motivated postdoctoral fellow holding a PhD degree in Life- or Data Sciences
• 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
• Experience with single cell sequencing analysis is a major advantage

The project

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 T 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, open a backdoor for T cells directly in the granuloma. 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 single-cell sequencing datasets from vaccinated animals early after TB infection. Later, this will be expanded to also include spatial transcriptomics using the 10x visium platform. Of key interest, we have observed that the iBALTs are associated with mature high endothelial venules (HEVs). Given that HEVs are designed for cellular trafficking, it is the second goal of the project to determine the impact of these structures on T cell homing and positioning in the TB infected lung. We will reach this goal in collaboration with leading research institutions in Europe and US using cutting-edge techniques incl. advanced murine models, multiplex imaging and intravital microscopy that together with data from spatial transcriptomics will give a clear picture of the role of iBALT in T cell positioning. If our hypotheses are correct, it could lead to a new path for TB vaccine development as well as inform research into therapies against solid tumors and other chronic 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.

Department: ,

Location: Artillerivej 5