Start Date
Immediate
Expiry Date
13 May, 25
Salary
41255.0
Posted On
17 Mar, 25
Experience
1 year(s) or above
Remote Job
Yes
Telecommute
Yes
Sponsor Visa
No
Skills
Good communication skills
Industry
Hospital/Health Care
ABOUT US
The Fink lab at UCL is seeking an ambitious and highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Band 7) to join our team investigating the role of anti-cytokine auto-antibodies in immune dysfunction and disease during ageing. Leveraging access to unique clinical cohorts, the Fink lab aims to understand and improve poor outcomes of infection and vaccination in people living with frail immunity including during ageing, chronic virus infections, and organ failure, encompassing solid organ transplant recipients. The post holder will be based at the new state-of-the-art Institute of Immunity and Transplantation (IIT), in UCL’s Division of Infection and Immunity (Royal Free campus, Pears Building). Work within the Institute aims to translate advances in the understanding of the immune system into improved therapies for patients.
This project is an NIHR-funded collaboration with the UCL VIVALDI study and biobank, and the Ring lab at Fred Hutch Cancer Centre, Seattle, USA. VIVALDI is a large multi-site cohort study of long-term care facility residents with advanced age (median age 89 years) designed to characterise SARS-CoV-2 transmission and vaccination responses in this vulnerable population. We will generate the first unbiased auto-antibody association study for outcomes of infection and vaccinations in older adults using Rapid Extracellular Antigen Profiling (REAP) to test biobanked serum samples against >6000 extracellular proteins linked to VIVALDI metadata. This will address the urgent need to understand the full breadth and impact of anti-cytokine auto-antibodies in older adults. Age-related auto-reactivity emerged as a key driver of infection mortality during the pandemic, when anti-type 1 interferon auto-antibodies were detected in 20% of individuals who died from COVID. We expect to find that diverse anti-cytokine and anti-chemokine auto-antibodies in older adults disrupt immune responses to impair infection and vaccination outcomes.
ABOUT THE ROLE
The successful candidate will be expected to perform high-quality research to validate auto-antibodies identified by REAP and undertake B cell immunophenotyping of the VIVALDI cohort. REAP-identified auto-antibodies are expected to include those against diverse cytokines and chemokines, the function of which will be assayed using in vitro bioassays and ex vivo immunophenotyping and RNA sequencing of blood cells matched to sera from the VIVALDI biobank. Working with collaborators in the McCoy lab, the candidate will also adapt B cell ELISpot assays, used to detect pathogen-specific B cell memory, to measure auto-antigen-specific B cell memory in the VIVALDI cohort. The successful candidate will be expected to undertake independent high-quality analyses of linked clinical metadata working with VIVALDI statisticians. The successful candidate will also be expected to generate, analyse, and present scientific findings from the work undertaken to a broad range of audiences, both internal and external to UCL. The successful candidate will join a new research group and will get the opportunity to work directly alongside the PI within a dynamic and collaborative group of multidisciplinary scientists from across the IIT, UCL and external partners.
The position is available for 1 year in the first instance. The position may be extended, dependent on project success, funding, and scientific priorities. The post is ideal for a motivated postdoctoral scientist (or someone who is about to submit their thesis) who enjoys working as part of a multidisciplinary team.
As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:
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