Job Posting: Staff Scientist, Immunology, NIAID
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
A staff scientist position is open in the Molecular Development of the Immune System Section, NIAID Laboratory of Immunology. The incumbent will take a lead role in developing new analytic procedures as well as novel therapies based on antigen-specific deletion of tolerance for autoimmune diseases. He/she will become the lead investigator in the NIAID collaborative research and development agreements (CRADAs) to develop new autoimmune disease analytic tests and immunotherapeutic proteins.
Advances in immunology over the past three decades have demonstrated the central role of T lymphocytes in initiating, orchestrating, and terminating immune responses. The staff scientist will lead a team to develop new technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune conditions including Type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Specifically, the group will work on a new technology to measure antigen-specific T lymphocyte responses in healthy or diseased individuals, with applications in monitoring immune responses during inflammatory, infectious, or autoimmune diseases, as well as determining immune reactivity in response to drugs and vaccines. This will be used to assess new therapeutic approaches in which cognate antigen will be used to program the death of pathogenic T cells in these diseases. Designer protein immunotherapeutics will be used to eliminate antigen-specific T cells through apoptosis or other death mechanisms-e.g., the development of tolerogenic vaccines-as a new modality for specifically treating pathological T-cell responses in the prediabetic phase of Type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis. These studies will require preclinical animal investigations and, ultimately, translation to the clinic.
In addition to carrying out his/her own experiments, he/she will serve as a mentor within the section for junior level research trainees. As a staff scientist, the incumbent will serve as the primary project manager and must function with a high level of independence to carry out the program goals. He/she will serve as a primary point-of-contact for industrial partners and orchestrate the activities between large research teams at both the company and at NIAID. He/she will also collaborate effectively with other scientists within the NIAID community and train postdoctoral fellows and staff members in the specific tasks related to this collaborative research.
To apply for the position, interested candidates should email their curriculum vitae and bibliography to Maria G. Hessie,MHessie@niaid.nih.gov. Applications will be accepted through September 30, 2014.
Find out more about the Laboratory of Immunology and the Molecular Development of the Immune System Section.
Learn more about NIAID and additional career and training opportunities at Web.
DHHS and NIH are equal opportunity employers.