About the Project
PhD studentship
Payment of Home/EU Fees and a stipend of £17,500 per annum
Our mission is to improve human health by conducting basic and clinical research cooperatively with national and international institutions, technically driven with the goal of understanding human immunology that correlates with protection against emerging infectious diseases and leads to development of immunotherapies and effective vaccines. The focus of the PhD studentship will be on T cell immunity to African invasive nontyphoidal Salmonella disease.
The 3-year PhD studentship, starting in October 2014 and funded by Imperial College, London, will be involved in a research project aiming to better understand the T cell immune response to invasive nontyphoidal Salmonella (iNTS) disease. This is a major public health problem in sub-Saharan African where it is the commonest cause of bacterial bloodstream infections next to pneumococcus. Salmonella are facultative intracellular bacteria and although they are susceptible to antibody when in the extracellular space, they evade antibody-dependent killing when occupying the intracellular niche within macrophages. Here, cellular immunity involving particularly Th1 cells, is required to eliminate infection. No vaccine is currently available against iNTS disease for use in man, though several are in development at different institutions, including the Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health.
The PhD would be working primarily with human material and would first establish an in vitro model for the killing of nontyphoidal Salmonella within cultured monocyte-macrophages by autologous T cells. This would then be exploited to understand the T cell antigens recognised by protective T cells in healthy individuals and those that have had a microbiologically-proven episode of Salmonella disease. The PhD will also study T cell immunity to NTS in patients at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital with HIV-infection, a well-recognised clinical association with iNTS disease, in order to gauge what impairment of this component of adaptive immunity to NTS is present among such patients. Finally, there may be the opportunity in the latter stages of the project to work with blood cells from patients with HIV-infection and/or iNTS disease in Africa, and from volunteers receiving investigational vaccines against nontyphoidal Salmonella disease in early clinical trials.
We are seeking an enthusiastic graduate to join the department of Immunology based at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, to work under the supervision of Professors Xiaoning Xu and Calman MacLennan (of the Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health), and other senior scientists in the department. Applicants must have a BSc degree (upper second class or above) or equivalent and/or MSc in biomedical fields.
The position will be primarily based in the department of Immunology, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Imperial College London, 369 Fulham Road, London, SW10 9NH.
Interviews for shortlisted applicants will be held on Tuesday 14th October.
Enquiries and full applications, consisting of a full CV, supporting letter and the contact details of two academic referees, should be sent to Mrs Julie James, email: [Email Address Removed]
Informal visits to the laboratory (which is in the process of renovation) would be welcome.
Funding Notes
The studentship is open to both home/EU and overseas students. It includes payment of home/EU fees and an annual stipend of £17,500. Overseas students should be able to demonstrate adequate financial support to cover the difference between the home/EU fee and the overseas fee.