About the role

The post is supported by a Wellcome Trust Discovery Award for identification of clonal and functional T cell determinants of protection and pathogenesis in tuberculosis, aiming to develop novel approaches to stratifying disease risk in people who become infected and inform the design of next-generation vaccines. This programme of work is underpinned by the hypothesis that protective and pathogenic immunity is determined at the level of highly specific T cell-peptide/MHC interactions mediated by generalisable T cell metaclones. We aim to identify these public metaclones by TCR sequencing, undertake reverse epitope discovery to identify their pMHC targets, and to evaluate their role in pathogen clearance, clinical outcomes and vaccine efficacy.

The post-holder will be responsible for laboratory experimental work encompassing molecular and cellular biology, immunological assays, host transcriptional profiling by RNA/T cell receptor sequencing, and assays of Mycobacterium tuberculosis growth/restriction . Specific objectives focus on experimental validation of pMHC targets of public T cell metaclones, testing the relationship between TCR-pMHC affinities and T cell function, and unravelling the mechanisms by which T cells and macrophage interactions contribute to protective and pathogenic immunity.

The project involves close collaborations with additional laboratory and computational immunology groups at UCL (led by Prof. Benny Chain, Prof. Hans Stauss and Dr Andreas Mayer), and our project partners in South Africa (led by Dr Al Leslie).

The post-holder will benefit from personalised career development support with access to senior faculty and peer mentorship. They will receive protected time for bespoke training and professional development, documented, actioned, monitored and iteratively revised through induction and annual appraisal meetings. Depending on prior experience, we will provide access to core training (provided by established UCL modules) in research ethics and governance, data security/governance, research statistics, writing and presentation skills. There will be provision for training in coding skills for complex data analysis and to facilitate open-science by publishing source data and analysis pipelines. Introductory and advanced training incorporating database management, statistical analyses, data visualisation and modelling/machine learning are available at UCL.

Where required, we will allocate time and funding for external taught courses, including personal development activities, such as EDI and public engagement projects, personal coaching or leadership training, and research management training as appropriate. In addition, the post-holder will be encouraged and enabled to attend and present their work at relevant research conferences, including at least one international meeting per year, participate in associated satellite meetings/sessions aimed at early career researchers, and to develop a professional peer-network independent of the project.

The appointment will be for 3 years in the first instance, with the possibility of extension. Informal enquiries regarding the vacancy can be made by email to Prof. Mahdad Noursadeghi (m.noursadeghi@ucl.ac.uk). 

About you

The position will suit a highly motivated postdoctoral scientist interested in human immune responses to infection, at the interface of laboratory and bioinformatic/computational science.

Applicants should have (or about to be awarded) a PhD in a relevant subject, and experience of laboratory research in infection and immunity, with an enthusiasm for discovery science. Experience of working in the tuberculosis field, T cell and macrophage biology, and experience working with sequencing data and bioinformatics are highly desirable. They should be familiar with scientific method, including the application of statistical approaches to data interpretation. They should be able to undertake rigorous critical appraisal of primary scientific data. Good oral and written communication skills are essential, and they must be able to show a commitment to effective multi-disciplinary teamwork.

Please see the attached job description and person specification for full details. Please also read the attached Candidate Guidance document.

All applications must include a supporting statement to explain your motivation for the post and providing evidence using examples to showcase how you meet the essential criteria listed in the job description. Applications without a supporting statement will be rejected.

If you have any queries about the role or application process, have any technical issues, or need reasonable adjustments or a more accessible format to apply for this job online, please contact the staffing team at hr.ii@ucl.ac.uk.

Note: Appointment at grade 7 is dependent upon having been awarded a PhD; if this is not the case, the initial appointment will be at research assistant Grade 6B, with payment at Grade 7 being backdated to the date of final submission of the PhD thesis

Documents

• download: TalentLink Candidate Guidance.pdf
• download: JD_PDRA_LaboratoryScientist_TEMPEST_2025-5.pdf

UCL posting: Job details: Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Noursadeghi Team)