Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Would you like to be involved in cutting edge research to develop novel biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment of patients with inflammatory conditions?

Are you interested in acquiring and/or developing your skills to produce new research tools in order to answer complex biological questions?

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Fellow position working with Prof Michael McDermott and Dr Sinisa Savic on the Horizion 2020 project “ImmunAID”.Based on the St. James' Campus, you will co-ordinate projects related to Work Package 3 (WP3) of ImmunAID programme entitled: Inflammasome-associated pathways in sporadic and undiagnosed systemic autoinflammatory disorders. More specifically you will be working on the task 1 and 2 of WP3 with the aims: Reporting to Dr Savic, your work will be carried out in collaboration with Dr. Rained Doffinger, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.  Capitalising on the infrastructure and samples collected through the Leeds Centre for Systemic Autoinflammatory disorders (SAID) based across St James's University Hospital and Chapel Allerton Hospital, you will examine the status of inflammasome activation (NLRP3 and NLRC4, Pyrin initially) in cells and sera (blood) from patients with genetically defined SAID and those with sporadic or unknown cause. You will develop and validate assays to measure inflammasome particles in cell culture supernatants and biological fluids, mainly sera. In collaboration with Dr Doffinger, you will also develop and validate assays for detection of novel autoantibodies, including anti-ASC antibodies, which potentiate the activity of the NLRP3 inflammasome. You will support the management of the research group, specifically dedicated to this project, consisting of a Clinical fellow, and one PhD student, as required.

To explore the post further or for any enquiries you may have, please contact:

Dr Sinisa Savic, Associate Professor (Clinical), Tel: +44 (0)113 2065567, Email: s.savic@leeds.ac.uk    or

Professor Michael McDermott, Professor of Experimental Rheumatology 

Tel + 44 (0) 113 343 8641, Email: m.mcdermott@leeds.ac.uk