Postdoctoral researcher in comparative immunology and virology

Organisation/Company

Inserm DR Rhône Alpes - Auvergne

Department

human resources

Research Field

Biological sciences » Biology

Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Positions

Postdoc Positions

Country

Åland Islands

Application Deadline

30 Mar 2025 - 15:00 (Europe/Paris)

Type of Contract

Permanent

Job Status

Full-time

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by a EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

The center :Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie (Inserm U1111)

CIRI is a leading research center jointly affiliated with Inserm, CNRS, ENS Lyon and Université de Lyon Claude Bernard. CIRI brings together 500 scientists with expertise ranging from molecular virology to human immunology. 

The postdoc will join the group "Functional evolution of virus-host interactions, and impact on cross-species transmission " led by Lucie ETIENNE, within the LP2L team located on the ENS Lyon campus. The group aims to better understand molecular interactions and co-evolution between viruses and mammals. It comprises 3 PhD students, 1 Marie-Curie MSCA postdoctoral fellow, 2 engineers and 1 Master's trainee, and is part of the wider LP2L team.

The Center has gold-standard equipment required for the project (BSL2-3, microscopy, flow cytometry, sequencing, biocomputational hub…) with the support of UMS BioSciences and CBPsmn.

The project : 

Cell-autonomous innate immunity is the first line of defense against pathogens in all living organisms. It is crucial against viral infections, cross-species transmissions, but also in cancer and autoimmunity. Recent advances in antiphage defense from prokaryotes and in predicted protein structure homology searches have allowed the identification of “ancestral immunity” [1]: immune proteins shared by different organisms throughout the tree of life. Structural and functional analogs of mammalian immune factors have recently been identified in prokaryotic antiviral proteins, such as cGAS/STING, gasdermins. Some of them even share an extremely ancient and common evolutionary history, such as Viperin [2-3]. Our lab has identified some other examples of human antiviral immune protein domains, which have homologs in antiphage proteins of bacteria [unpub]. Yet, we believe this is only the tip of the iceberg, and we now want to use these concepts to invert the discovery scheme. In this project, we aim to start from newly-identified defense systems of bacteria to discover antiviral innate immune factors in mammals. 

In collaboration with the Inserm Impact EvoCure consortium, the postdoctoral fellow will perform an original homolog gain-of-function screen of selected candidates to identify novel mammalian antiviral factors, with the help from the EvoCure Engineer (i.e. senior research technician). He/she will then choose one or several candidate proteins and characterize their immune roles, molecular mechanisms of action in mammals, and their evolutionary history [4-5]. We expect to uncover previously-unknown actors of mammalian innate immunity, which have been important over deep evolutionary times and may play key roles in modern pathology and viral reservoir hosts.

References (* our lab, ∂ EvoCure collaborators)

1∂. Bernheim et al., Plos Biol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002717&nbsp ;

2∂. Rousset, Trends Immunol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.it.2023.10.001&nbsp ;

3. Ledvina and Whiteley, Nat Rev Microbiol (2024), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-024-01017-1&nbsp ;

4*. Jacquet et al., Science Advances (2022). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.add7540&nbsp ;

5*. Legrand et al., Plos Biol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002696&nbsp ;

Main activities

• Develop innovative, interdisciplinary research projects in collaboration with other team members.
• Design and implement experimental and bioinformatics techniques: molecular virology of RNA and DNA viruses, cell biology, innate immunity in non-model mammalian cells such as bats or non-human primates, phylogenetic analyses, protein structure prediction analyses...
• Analyze results and communicate them at conferences and in publications.
• Train new trainees.

Skills 

• Molecular and cellular biology, Virology, Innate immunity, Evolutionary biology, Phylogenomics and/or Bioinformatics
• Interdisciplinary skill set
• Previous experiences in: high-throughput approaches (CRISPR screens, exogenous library screens), mechanistic characterization of protein functions, phylogenomic analyses, protein structure prediction or NGS data analyses (python, R).
• Autonomy, collaborative work, excellent written and oral communication skills

Past experience

• Scientific publications in international peer-reviewed journals (at least 1 preprint or first-author article).
• Experience in supervising trainees or staff.

Training

• PhD in Life Sciences

More contract info.

• Fixed-termed contract: 1 year renewable (3 years with possible extension)
• Starting date to be discussed, from May 2025
• Salary according to national standards, with benefits (collective catering, partial reimbursement of transport fees, supplementary health insurance)

E-mail

lucie.etienne@ens-lyon.fr

Research Field

Biological sciences » Biology

Education Level

Undergraduate

Languages

ENGLISH

Level

Excellent

Research Field

Agricultural sciences

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

INSERM- CIRI

Country

European Union

State/Province

LYON

City

LYON

Postal Code

69007

Geofield

City

BRON

Website

http://www.rhone-alpes-auvergne.inserm.fr

Street

95 Boulevard Pinel

Postal Code

69500

E-Mail

lucie.etienne@ens-lyon.fr

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