Postdoc opportunity in Quantitative Immunology at the University College London

General

• Department: School of Life & Medical Sciences (B02)
• Location: London
• Working Pattern: Full time
• Salary £43,124–£51,610
• Closing Date: 10-Dec-2024

About us

We are seeking a post-doctoral computational scientist to join a Innate2Adaptive research group (https://www.innate2adaptive.uk) within the Division of Infection and Immunity at UCL, to develop theoretical and computational approaches to study host-pathogen interactions with a focus on T cell responses to tuberculosis.

Our group comprises a multi-disciplinary team of scientists with expertise in laboratory immunology, human experimental medicine and mathematical/computational method development. We focus on the immunology of infectious diseases, aiming to identify biomarkers for diagnostic and prognostic applications, and enabling development of novel vaccines and therapeutics.

The Division of Infection & Immunity at UCL hosts >40 principal investigators with world leading expertise in molecular virology, pathogen genomics and evolution, innate immune host-pathogen interactions, tuberculosis, viral immunology, translation of T cell receptor transgenics, T cell immunoregulation and immunology of transplantation, immunology of ageing, primary immunodeficiencies and computational immunology.

About the role

The post is supported by a Wellcome Trust Discovery Award for identification of clonal and functional T cell determinants of protection and pathogenesis in tuberculosis, aiming to develop novel approaches to stratifying disease risk in people who become infected and inform the design of next-generation vaccines. This programme of work is underpinned by the hypothesis that protective and pathogenic immunity is determined at the level of highly specific T cell-peptide/MHC interactions mediated by generalisable T cell metaclones. We aim to identify these public metaclones by TCR sequencing and undertake reverse epitope discovery to identify their pMHC targets.

The post-holder will be responsible for innovation, refinement and implementation of the computational approaches for identification of public T cell metaclones from large scale TCR sequencing data; and to advance reverse epitope discovery by combining pathogen transcriptomic/proteomic data sets with in silico models to predict peptide-MHC interactions, and supporting novel development of machine learning models that predict TCR-pMHC interactions.

The project involves an international consortium. The post holder will report to computational biologist Dr. Andreas Tiffeau-Mayer (andreas.mayer@ucl.ac.uk), but will also work closely with “wet” lab scientists, clinicians and computational biologists within the Innate2Adaptive group (led by Mahdad Noursadeghi, Benny Chain and Hans Stauss) and our project partners in South Africa (led by Al Leslie).

The post is for 2 years in the first instance, with the possibility of extension.

About you

The position will suit a highly motivated postdoctoral computational scientist interested in host-pathogen interactions which determine the outcomes of infection.

Applicants should have a PhD (or about to be awarded) in a relevant subject, and experience of application of bioinformatics, computational science and mathematical modelling of biological systems. Experience of sequencing data, immunology and infectious disease research are also desirable. Good oral and written communication skills are essential, as is commitment to effective multi-disciplinary teamwork.

Please see the attached job description and person specification for full details. Please also read the attached Candidate Guidance document.

All applications must include a supporting statement telling us, using examples, how you meet the essential criteria listed in the job description. Applications without a supporting statement will be rejected.

If you have any queries about the role or application process, have any technical issues, or need reasonable adjustments or a more accessible format to apply for this job online, please contact the staffing team at hr.ii@ucl.ac.uk.

Informal enquiries to Dr Andreas Tiffeau-Mayer (andreas.mayer@ucl.ac.uk) are strongly encouraged.

Note: Appointment at grade 7 is dependent upon having been awarded a PhD; if this is not the case, the initial appointment will be at research assistant Grade 6B, with payment at Grade 7 being backdated to the date of final submission of the PhD thesis.

What we offer

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:

• 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)
• Additional 5 days’ annual leave purchase scheme
• Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)
• Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan
• Immigration loan
• Relocation scheme for certain posts
• On-Site nursery
• On-site gym
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
• Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service
• Discounted medical insurance

Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more.

Source and application: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/search-ucl-jobs/details?nPostingId=12146&nPostingTargetId=29502&id=Q1KFK026203F3VBQBLO8M8M07