Pneumonia causes the death of almost one million children each year. Current vaccines against the most common bacterial cause, pneumococcus, face serious limitations. One hurdle to the development of new vaccines is that trials to measure vaccines efficacy require many participants and are extremely expensive. The establishment of a correlate of protection against pneumococcus following vaccination would be invaluable in the acceleration of the testing and licensing of new vaccines. New techniques, such as mass-cytometry, enable us now to analyze the activity and specificity of B cells at an unprecedented large scale. As a postdoc, you will develop mass-cytometry assays to measure quantitatively and qualitatively memory B cell responses against a large number of pneumococcus serotypes. These assays will then be used on unique clinical samples from a human pneumococcal colonization model and a cohort of vaccinated children to define correlates of protection. In this project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation you will in this way contribute to the quicker testing of new vaccines against pneumonia.

You have a (bio)medical or biochemical academic degree and a PhD in human immunology or vaccinology. Furthermore, you have hands-on experience with multi-parameter flow-cytometry and/or mass-cytometry and experience in data analysis (preferably in R). An understanding of B cell immunology is a pre. We are looking for an enthusiastic and ambitious colleague who is proactive and determined. You can work in an interdisciplinary team and have excellent communication skills. If you recognize yourself in this profile description, we look forward to receiving your application.

Fixed-term contract: min. 1 year.

You will be appointed for 36 hours per week. Appointment is initially for one year, with the possibility for extension of another year. Your salary is based on your education and experience and is a maximum of € 4,361 gross per month based on a fulltime position (scale 10, cao UMC).

LUMC

At the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), we are continually seeking to improve the quality of healthcare. The LUMC aims for excellence in patient care, research, teaching, training and continuing education.

http://www.lumc.nl/

Department of Parasitology, Center of Infectious Diseases

You will work in a research group of the Department of Parasitology, Center of Infectious Diseases. This group is internationally oriented and consists of a professor, multiple senior researchers, national and international postdocs and PhD candidates, research technicians and several bachelor/master students.