Two postdoctoral positions in Immunology are available at the “Vulnerability and Ageing of the Immune System” team within the ImmunoConcept Laboratory of the Bordeaux University, France under the supervision of Victor Appay.
Start and Duration of the appointments:
From October 2021 for 2 to 3 years
Research context and projects:
Elderly people present an increased rate of severe infections and cancers compared to younger individuals, resulting in a significant reduction in their quality of life and increasing medical costs. Growing evidence indicates that disease in the elderly is related to changes of the immune system competence with ageing, characterized by quantitative and qualitative alterations of immune cells, and a hyper-inflammatory status, referred to as immunosenescence and inflammaging, respectively.
Our projects tackle immunological questions pertaining to the induction or loss of effective human T-cell responses, from early immune compartments (i.e. hematopoietic stem cells and progenitors) to late memory T-cells in older humans, and individuals with cancer or infected by viruses (e.g HIV, CMV or SARS-CoV-2). We aim to I) Dissect the alterations of the hematopoietic stem cell compartment and their impact on lymphopoietic capacity in the elderly; II) Uncover impairments of antigen specific naïve ab and gd T-cells with old age, and develop strategies to improve T-cell priming and vaccine efficacy in this setting of ‘compromised’ immunity.
Candidate qualification and selection criteria:
We seek highly motivated, creative and enthusiastic postdoctoral fellows, able to work independently with excellent communication skills. Applicants should have a Ph.D. with at least one first-author publication and a strong background in immunology. Basic knowledge of RNAseq analysis is an asset but not requested.
Criteria to evaluate candidates will include academic achievements, past research experience (internships, master thesis), interest in working in a multidisciplinary research environment, enthusiasm and communication skills
Application:
Candidates should send their application including CV, a brief description of research accomplishments, list of publications, cover letter and contact for at least two referees into a single PDF file to Victor Appay (victor.appay(at)immuconcept.org).
Selected candidates will be contacted for an on-site or video interview.
