Postdoctoral Fellowship in Single Cell Clinical Immunology

The South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative performs cutting edge clinical and immunological research in TB pathogenesis, biomarker development and clinical vaccine development. We recently embarked on a project that aims to understand immunopathology in tissues affected by tuberculosis disease and to define the role of tissue-specific immune responses in control of M. tuberculosis and disease pathogenesis. 

We are inviting applications for a postdoctoral fellowship in single cell clinical immunology. The successful candidate will perform single cell RNA sequencing, CITE-seq and analysis on samples collected postmortem from humans as part of a multi-center study. The fellow will be based in Cape Town, but the project may require activity-related travel to collaborating international institutes. The successful candidate will contribute to study and scientific design, development and performance of lab assays and computational data analyses. For more information on SATVI, visit www.satvi.uct.ac.za. 

Key Requirements:

• Ph.D. degree within the last 5 years in immunology, bioinformatics or computational biology, or PhD in biological sciences with at least 3 years of relevant bioinformatics or computational biology experience.
• Demonstrated solid scientific proficiency, creativity, critical thinking ability to collaborate effectively with others, and independent thought processes. 
• Authorship of peer-reviewed publications related to bioinformatics, computational biology or immunology.
• Ability to handle multiple projects and priorities with exceptional organizational and time management skills.

Knowledge and experience in single cell sequencing and transcriptomics, immunology, Biosafelty level 3 work, working proficiency in UNIX/Linux and R programming and strong skills in the application of computational and statistical analytical techniques with a focus on high-dimensional and multivariate data analysis will be advantageous.

The candidate should not have held any prior permanent professional or academic positions and must be prepared to comply with the policies, procedures and practices for the postdoctoral sector at the University of Cape Town. The fellowship is initially tenable for three years, but renewal each year will be contingent on annual progress and performance reviews. The fellowship is valued between R375,000 and R400,000 per year and will depend on relevant experience and skills. The fellowship is compliant with the rules set by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and is exempt from taxation and includes no benefits.  No direct service will be required in return for the fellowship.

Potential applicants are encouraged to contact Dr Virginie Rozot (virginie.rozot@uct.ac.za), project PI, or Prof. Thomas Scriba (Thomas.scriba@uct.ac.za), Deputy-Director, Immunology, by e-mail, prior to application. 

To apply, please email a letter of motivation, full CV and contact details of 3 referees, clearly indicating “Postdoctoral Fellowship” in the subject line, to Ms Alison September at a.september@uct.ac.za.