The project
Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease with increasing prevalence. Asthma cannot be cured, but some patients spontaneously enter into remission of the disease. The underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms of asthma remission are unknown. To elucidate these mechanisms, we perform an industry-sponsored translational genomics study in close collaboration with the Sanger/EMBL as part of the Open Targets program, performing single cell RNA sequencing on CD4+ T cells, ILCs and bronchial epithelial cells isolated directly from patients with active asthma, asthma remission and controls.
We have an opening for a postdoctoral research fellow, focused on bioinformatics analyses of the bronchial epithelial single-cell RNA seq data and performing functional validation experiments using matched primary epithelial cells in vitro using established methods including air-liquid interface cultures and 3D lung organoid culture models.
The project will be embedded within the
Groningen Research Institute of Asthma and COPD (GRIAC), one of the 3 world’s leading translational research institutes in chronic respiratory disease. The project is part of the open targets program at Sanger/EMBL, and bio-informatic analyses will be performed in close collaboration with the Sanger team (Teichmann).