Postdoctoral Researcher in Immunology and Virology (H/F)

You will work primarily at Institut Pasteur (Paris, 15th arrondissement), within Dr Lisa Chakrabarti's team, in close day-to-day collaboration with the Organ-on-Chip Platform led by Dr Samy Gobaa. You will be employed by the BIOEPAR joint research unit (INRAE-Oniris), based in Nantes, and work under the scientific supervision of Dr Pauline Maisonnasse, who leads the FluOrganoVax project at INRAE. Regular trips to Nantes will support scientific coordination and experiments jointly conducted at Institut Pasteur and INRAE.

BIOEPAR's Immunocare team investigates infectious diseases of farm animals and their effects on animal health and livestock production systems. Its two research groups focus on respiratory health in pigs and cattle, respectively. The team develops innovative approaches to better understand pathogen-immune system interactions and improve prevention and vaccination strategies.

The FluOrganoVax project aims to reproduce ex vivo the immune responses induced in porcine lymph nodes following vaccination, with the goal of developing a predictive model for evaluating vaccine formulations without systematically relying on animal experiments. The postdoctoral researcher will develop a porcine lymph-node-on-chip model using porcine immune cells, drawing on the expertise of the Immunocare team (porcine immunology; BIOEPAR/INRAE-Oniris), Dr Lisa Chakrabarti's team (human immunology; Institut Pasteur), and Dr Samy Gobaa's Organ-on-Chip Platform (Institut Pasteur).

This position offers an opportunity to contribute to an ambitious collaborative project at the interface of immunology, virology, organ-on-chip technologies and vaccine development, within a network spanning academic and industrial research.

Main responsibilities

• Develop a porcine lymph-node-on-chip model
• Integrate porcine immune cells into the device.
• Optimize perfusion and culture conditions.
• Assess model viability and stability.
• Characterize the model's cellular composition and immune responses
• Monitor immune cell populations using conventional and/or spectral flow cytometry and confocal imaging.
• Measure cytokines and antibodies by ELISA.
• Assess cellular responses using ELISpot and/or intracellular cytokine staining (ICS).
• Contribute to virus neutralization assays.
• Analyse and present data: statistical analysis, interpretation, graphical presentation and scientific writing.

Data analysis and dissemination

• Contribute to experimental study design.
• Analyse experimental results.
• Present findings internally and externally.
• Write scientific papers, with opportunities for first-author publications.
• Contribute to scientific coordination among BIOEPAR, Institut Pasteur and project partners.

Laboratory activities

• Comply with laboratory hygiene, safety and quality procedures.
• Participate in the scientific activities of Dr Lisa Chakrabarti's group and the Organ-on-Chip Platform.
• Attend BIOEPAR scientific meetings.
• Potentially supervise Master's students, depending on project progress.

Specific working conditions: Work in a biosafety level 2 (BSL-2) laboratory. No direct animal handling, but handling of fresh porcine tissue and blood samples. The position is based at Institut Pasteur in Paris, with regular travel to BIOEPAR in Nantes for joint experiments and project meetings, as well as travel to national and international conferences.

Formation et compétences requises

Doctorat (PhD) en immunologie, bio-ingénierie, biologie cellulaire, biomécanique, microfluidique, virologie ou dans une discipline apparentée.

Le contrat doit débuter au plus tard trois ans après l'obtention du doctorat.

Solide expérience pratique en culture cellulaire.

Expérience en immunologie.

Expérience en cytométrie en flux conventionnelle et/ou spectrale.

Maîtrise des logiciels d'analyse de données, tels que R, FlowJo ou équivalents.

Bonne maîtrise de l'anglais