Postdoctoral Research Fellow

**Ref Number** B02-08564 **Professional Expertise** Research and Research Support **Department** School of Life & Medical Sciences (B02) **Location** London **Working Pattern** Full time **Salary** £43,374 £51,860 **Contract Type** Fixed-term **Working Type** On site **Available for Secondment** No **Closing Date** 29-Jun-2025 **About us**: 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, undertake reverse epitope discovery to identify their pMHC targets, and to evaluate their role in pathogen clearance, clinical outcomes and vaccine efficacy. The post-holder will be responsible for laboratory experimental work encompassing molecular and cellular biology, immunological assays, host transcriptional profiling by RNA/T cell receptor sequencing, and assays of _Mycobacterium tuberculosis growth/restriction_. Specific objectives focus on experimental validation of pMHC targets of public T cell metaclones, testing the relationship between TCR-pMHC affinities and T cell function, and unravelling the mechanisms by which T cells and macrophage interactions contribute to protective and pathogenic immunity. The project involves close collaborations with additional laboratory and computational immunology groups at UCL (led by Prof. Benny Chain, Prof. Hans Stauss and Dr Andreas Mayer), and our project partners in South Africa (led by Dr Al Leslie). The post-holder will benefit from personalised career development support with access to senior faculty and peer mentorship. They will receive protected time for bespoke training and professional development, documented, actioned, monitored and iteratively revised through induction and annual appraisal meetings. Depending on prior experience, we will provide access to core training (provided by established UCL modules) in research ethics and governance, data security/governance, research statistics, writing and presentation skills. There will be provision for training in coding skills for complex data analysis and to facilitate open-science by publishing source data and analysis pipelines. Introductory and advanced training incorporating database management, statistical analyses, data visualisation and modelling/machine learning are available at UCL. Where required, we will allocate time and funding for external taught courses, including personal development activities, such as EDI and public engagement projects, personal coaching or leadership training, and research management training as appropriate. In addition, the post-holder will be encouraged and enabled to attend and present their work at relevant research conferences, including at least one international meeting per year, participate in associated satellite meetings/sessions aimed at early career researchers, and to develop a professional peer-network independent of the project. **About you**: The position will suit a highly motivated postdoctoral scientist interested in human immune responses to infection, at the interface of laboratory and bioinformatic/computational science. 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 **Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion**: As London’s Global University, we know diversity