VACANCY: Research Scientist, Moredun Research Institute, UK

Moredun Research Institute are seeking an enthusiastic and conscientious individual to join a research team developing vaccines against viral infections of ruminants. You will work with Dr Bill Golde and our external partners in Pretoria, South Africa, funded by the IDRC Canada Livestock Vaccine Innovation Fund (LVIF).  You will be part of the team in Pretoria working in the collaborators laboratory to support of the large vaccine trials and apply the new assays of T cell responses to samples from animals in the trial.

You will be a cellular immunologist with experience working with different livestock species, including cattle, sheep and pigs. You will be responsible for analysing the immune response to vaccination of cattle with viral vectored vaccines protecting against viral infections. Knowledge and acumen in molecular virology is desirable for this role.

You will have the ability to design, construct and test viral vectors expressing antigens of the target viruses in vitro, test the constructs in vaccine trials in cattle, and perform comprehensive analysis of the immune response to vaccination.  Critical to the analysis of vaccine performance and vaccine design is development of flow cytomertry based assays for cytotoxic T lymphocyte killing of infected target cells. Whether CTL killing is induced by vaccination will determine the final composition of the vaccine formulation for live virus challenge. The funding is in collaboration with colleagues in Pretoria, South Africa. With successful immunogenicity trials at Moredun Research Institute in Edinburgh, expanded trials with live virus challenge will be carried out in Pretoria.

Salary: £28,500-£37,947  Ref: 01-05-18

Closing Date:  9 July 2018

Full details of this role including the job description and person specification are included in our application pack on the website https://www.moredun.org.uk/careers/research-scientist-2