Postdoctoral Researcher in cellular immunology and immunotherapy

Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research?

We are seeking a highly motivated and ambitious individual to join the research group of Professor Yenan Bryceson as a Postdoctoral Fellow to further elucidate the molecular regulation of human cytotoxic lymphocyte differentiation and harness insights for improved cellular immunotherapy of solid cancer. This project will be performed in close collaboration with the team of Associate Professor Isabelle Magalhaes.

In the Bryceson group, you will be working in an international and interdisciplinary research environment, where collaborative efforts are encouraged and your development to scientific independence will be fostered. We constitute a multi-disciplinary group of experimentalists, lab technicians, computational biologists, developers, PhD students and researchers of various background. We always aim for an open and creative environment. The research group is based at the Center of Hematology and Regenerative Medicine (HERM). HERM consists of approximately 90 research fellows and is a nationally leading and internationally competitive environment for studies of the human immune system in the context of malignancy and infectious diseases. As part of the Department of Medicine Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, the center offers state-of-the art cell culture, molecular biology, flow cytometry, imaging facilities.

To build a strong and creative research team, we are looking for high achievers from universities around the world. We will offer an intellectually stimulating environment and we look for talented people who will play a part in developing our next breakthrough ideas. Our aim is to promote independent researchers that will build their careers in science.

Your mission

Previously considered an arm of the innate immune system, recent studies from our group (Schlums, Cichocki et al., Immunity 2015; Holmes et al., Sci Immunol 2021) as well as others have uncovered distinct NK cell differentiation and memory processes. We also have an interest in the genetic programs that promote tissue-resident T cell-mediated cytotoxicity in tissues (Cheuk et al. Immunity 2017; Zitti et al, Immunity in press). The laboratory of Magalhaes has developed CAR-T cell models of solid tumors, including ovarian cancer (Schoutrop et al., Cancer Res 2021; Schoutrop et al., JITC 2023). We seek further understanding of cytotoxic lymphocyte homing, differentiation and persistence, which can be harnessed for cellular immunotherapy of solid cancers.

As a Bryceson lab member, you will be involved in genetically manipulating lymphocytes or their progenitors to identify genes that potentiate their homing to tissues, persistence, and cytotoxic function. You will develop model systems, e.g. genetically manipulated human lymphocytes, xenogenic animal models of cancer. We aim to recruit an independent and motivated person who can set up and maintain workflows by implementing or adapting existing tools. Methods will include cell culture, genetic manipulation, advanced flow cytometry and sorting, (single-cell) RNA-seq, functional analyses, and animal experiments. Your efforts aim to identify and experimentally validate new approaches for cellular therapy of advanced solid cancers.

Your profile

To be eligible for employment as a postdoctor a doctoral degree or a foreign degree deemed to be equivalent to a doctoral degree is required. This eligibility requirement must be fulfilled at the latest at the time of the employment decision. It is considered as an advantage if you have completed your doctoral degree within the last three years, if there are special reasons, your degree may have been completed earlier.

The applicant must have a strong background in molecular biology, cell culture, cell modification, and cell differentiation as well as advanced flow cytometry. Interests in programming, computational biology, and statistics as well as experience in high-throughput sequence and gene expression data analysis is considered a merit.

Required skills:

At least one first author publication in a recognized peer-reviewed journal
Good knowledge of immunology and immunotherapy of cancer
Extensive experience with animal models
Excellent communication skills and motivation to work collaboratively
Ability to work independently and manage multiple projects in parallel
Proficiency in spoken and written English

Desirable skills:

Experimental knowledge of immunological methods
Hands-on experience with cell culture, cell sorting, and advanced flow cytometry
Experience with viral vector for cell transduction
Experience CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing
Knowledge in R and foundations of statistics
Knowledge in Linux environment and at least one programming language, such as Java
Familiarity with tools for workflows and software development such as GitHub

What do we offer?

A creative and inspiring environment with wide-ranging expertise and interests. Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. At Karolinska Institutet, we conduct successful medical research and hold the largest range of medical education in Sweden. At KI, you get to meet researchers working with a wide range of specialisms and methods, giving you ample opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience with the various scientific fields within medicine and health. It is the crossover collaborations, which have pushed KI to where it is today, at the forefront of global research. Several of the people you meet in healthcare are educated at KI. A close relationship with the health care providers is important for creating groundbreaking top quality education and research. Karolinska Institutet is also a state university, which entitles you to several benefits through our collective agreement.

Location: Flemingsberg

Choose to work at KI – Ten reasons why

The Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH)

Application

An employment application must contain the following documents in English or Swedish:

A complete resumé, including date of the thesis defence, title of the thesis, previous academic positions, academic title, current position, academic distinctions, and committee work
A complete list of publications
A summary of current work (no more than one page)

Welcome to apply at the latest 2023-06-21.

The application is to be submitted through the Varbi recruitment system.

Want to make a difference? Join us and contribute to better health for all