Postdoctoral Scientist (PRRS Immunology)

Organisation position and purpose

The post-holder will be a pivotal member of an international research team funded by an award from the Innovate UK SBRI Vaccines for Global Epidemics – Clinical competition. The project titled ‘A Nipah vaccine to eliminate porcine reservoirs and safeguard human health’ will develop an inexpensive, safe and efficacious vaccine for use in pigs to protect against Nipah virus (NiV) infection and transmission thereby reducing the risk to public health. The vaccine will also reduce the major risk NiV poses to both the nascent developing pig industries, as well as to the livelihoods of poor livestock keepers in low and middle income countries. The vaccine will enable the discrimination of infection in vaccinated animals and therefore provide an important new tool to aid the monitoring, control and elimination of NiV from these reservoirs in South and Southeast Asia.

The project will also provide a solid basis for the further evaluation of the vaccine for protection of humans against NiV infection. The post-holder will play a key role in conducting and coordinating studies with recombinant NiV vaccine candidates in the UK, Australia, Malaysia and Bangladesh. This represents an exciting opportunity to be part of a ‘One Health’ research project and is suitable for virologists, vaccinologists and/or immunologists with a keen interest in translational research.

Main duties and responsibility

Responsible for assisting with the management and coordination of research activities between partner institutions, project budget, and reporting to Innovate UK, under the supervision of the Principal Investigator, which will include:

• Coordinate research activities between partner institutions
• Management of project milestone and risk registers
• Management of project finances and reporting
• Organisation of project planning and review meetings and subsequent reports
• Communicating progress and data, including presentations at internal and external meetings and assisting with the preparation of manuscripts for publication
• Coordinate stakeholder engagement activities

Responsible for working as part of a research team, which will include:

• Contributing to the assessment of the immunogenicity of NiV vaccine candidates in pigs
• Support the establishment of these assay systems in partner laboratories to support the identification of immunological correlates of protection and evaluation of vaccines under field conditions

More details

For the full job description, requirements and details of how to apply, visit the original vacancy listing on The Pirbright Institute's jobs website.