Postdoctoral Position in Human Immunology

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 identify and mechanistically understand novel primary immunodeficiency diseases with susceptibility to viral infection, hyperinflammation, as well as cancer. Recent studies from our group on this subject include Campbell et al. J Exp Med 2022, Kalinichenko et al., Blood 2021, Holmes et al., Science Immunology 2021, Tesi et al., Blood 2017, and Schlums et al., Blood 2017.

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 malignancies and immunodeficiency. As part of the Department of Medicine Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, the center offers state-of-the art cell culture, molecular biology, flow cytometry and microscopy 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 rare diseases of infancy, primary immunodeficiencies are now viewed as more common, also explaining disease in children, adolescents, and adults. With high-throughput genetics, rare, potentially disease-causing variants can be uncovered. A major challenge is to understand how such variants may cause disease. The project will be focused on defects in cytotoxic lymphocytes as well as other hyperinflammatory syndromes with impaired lymphocyte development, differentiation, or function. Your aim will be to gain detailed insights to associations between specific genetic variants/mutations and immune function, allowing better diagnosis and treatment of patients suffering severe primary immunodeficiency disorders. The research group is internationally recognized in the field through a consistent track-record of high impact publications.

As a Bryceson lab member, you will apply and integrate high-throughput sequencing data to identify candidate disease-causing variants. You will develop model systems, e.g. genome-edited induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) with specific patient-derived genetic variants. We aim to recruit an independent and motivated person who can set up and maintain workflows by implementing or adapting existing tools. Your efforts aim to map key molecular interactions that contribute to the disease pathogenesis of immunodeficiencies and to drive the development of precision medicine.

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 ideally has a strong background in molecular and cell biology. Experience with iPSC culture, modification, and differentiation will be considered a merit. Interests in programming, computational biology, and statistics as well as experience in analyses of high-dimensional data sets, e.g. high-throughput sequence and gene expression data analysis, will also be considered a merit.

Required skills:

At least one first author publications in recognized peer-reviewed journal
Good understanding of molecular biology Expertise in R and foundations of statistics
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:

Good knowledge of hematopoiesis and/or immunology
Experimental knowledge of immunological methods
Experience with induced pluripotent stem cell culture and differentiation
Experience CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing
Hands-on experience with cell sorting and advanced flow cytometry
Firm knowledge in Linux environment and at least one programming language, such as Java
Experience in data integration of gene data sets
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