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Position Overview
Your primary responsibility will be to manage the prospective clinical study of Lyme Disease (LD) in children, known as the BRILLIANT study. This project aims to draw conclusions about the patho-mechanisms of Lyme Disease and to identify new microbiological and immunological markers of Borrelia burgdorferi infection.
Key Responsibilities
- Management of the BRILLIANT study including overseeing patient recruitment, scheduling follow-ups, processing and storing samples, extracting data from hospital records, and managing the study database (REDCap).
- Establishment of Borrelia cultures from clinical isolates: Optimizing protocols by improving qPCR screening procedures and culture conditions, and evaluating the usefulness of culture and qPCR for clinical diagnosis.
- Phenotyping the immune response in LD and LNB: Analyzing preliminary data and designing experiments to further investigate relevant immune cell subsets using flow cytometry, bead-based cytokine/chemokine assays, or scRNA-seq approaches.
- Identifying genotypes of Borrelia clinical isolates: Performing whole genome sequencing (WGS) on new Borrelia clinical isolates and identifying genotypes and virulence factors associated with LD and LNB clinical subgroups.
Additional Duties
- Writing scientific manuscripts in English.
- Presenting results at internal meetings and training events.
- Participating in national and international conferences, including presenting your work.
- If applicable, supervising Master's students in Biomedicine and Pharmacy.
Qualifications
- Master's degree (MSc) in medicine, biology, immunology, or a related field.
- Strong interest in clinical research; experience in this area is a plus.
- Research interest in immunology, microbiology, and/or infectious diseases.
- Good understanding of statistics; experience with R is an asset.
- High motivation, ability to work independently, and good written and oral communication skills.
- Proficiency in both German and English.
What We Offer
- A dynamic interdisciplinary team of physicians, study managers, and basic researchers.
- A fully equipped workstation at the Children's Hospital Zurich research complex.
- Access to state-of-the-art shared facilities (flow cytometry, microscopy, biobanking) at the new Children's Hospital Zurich research complex.
- Direct supervision by a postdoctoral researcher.
- Opportunities to participate in weekly group meetings, journal clubs, and progress reports.
- Continuous education opportunities (courses, seminars, workshops).
Apply Now
To join our innovative research team, apply online using the form below. Please note that only applications matching the job profile will be considered.
For inquiries, please contact:
Ismael Dellova de Campos
Koordination Doktoratsprogramm Clinical Science
clinical-science@dekmed.uzh.ch