[ccp4bb] Postdoctoral Position at the University of Georgia Center for Vaccines and Immunology

Postdoctoral Research Position in Antibody-Antigen Interactions

The Mousa Laboratory at the University of Georgia (UGA) Center for Vaccines and Immunology (CVI) https://vet.uga.edu/cvi in Athens, GA is seeking a creative and enthusiastic postdoctoral fellow to drive forward a research project focused on antibody-antigen interactions. This is a multidisciplinary project with enormous training opportunity in human immunology, virology, and structural biology, including X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy. The Mousa Laboratory studies monoclonal antibodies from humans, mice, and nonhuman primates as therapeutics and to inform vaccine design. The project will focus on the isolation of antibodies, and the immunological and structural characterization of antibody interactions with Pneumovirus and Paramyxoviruses. The postdoctoral fellow also has the opportunity to design protein vaccine constructs informed by structural data and to examine the experimental vaccines in mice and nonhuman primates directly or collaboratively.

The Mousa Laboratory uses a number of techniques that offer high potential for training including: X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, flow cytometry analysis and sorting, protein biochemistry, biolayer interferometry, virus growth and neutralization analysis, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, and monoclonal antibody isolation from human, mouse, and nonhuman primate B cells, among many other techniques. The postdoctoral fellow will be expected to design and conduct research within a specified field while receiving advanced training from a designated Principal Investigator to enhance professional skills and research independence needed for pursuit of a career. The postdoctoral fellow will be expected to design and evaluate experiments, develop new ideas and promote current research, and prepare and publish scientific manuscripts under the direction of the Principal Investigator. The postdoctoral fellow may be responsible for operation of scientific equipment. The postdoctoral fellow may be responsible for teaching techniques to others, including training of students and supervision of research staff.

Positions are temporary appointments as a research trainee. Funding for this position is available for at least two years. The initial appointment is for one year, and renewal is expected if progress is satisfactory and funds are available. Appointments cannot exceed five years.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: A doctoral degree or equivalent (Ph.D., M.D., ScD., D.V.M., etc.) in an appropriate field is required. Excellent scientific writing ability and strong oral communication skills are required, as is the ability to work effectively and collegially with colleagues.

ADDITIONAL PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS: Previous experience working with protein _expression_ and crystallization of viral proteins is preferred, but not required. Previous experience with X-ray crystallography and/or electron microscopy is preferred.

SCIENTIFIC ENVIRONMENT: The CVI at UGA is a unique and collaborative research environment currently housing four research laboratories focusing primarily on respiratory pathogens and emerging infectious diseases. The Mousa Lab is housed in the CVI and trainees have generous bench space, and access to state of the art instrumentation including an OctetRED384 system. UGA houses a Mosquito drop-setting robot, a state of the art in-house X-ray beamline, and negative-stain electron microscopes. UGA is a member of the Southeast Regional Access Collaborative Access Team (SER-CAT) at Argonne National Laboratory, and abundant beamtime is available. We also have access to the Electron Microscopy facility at Emory University, which includes a FEI Talos Arctica 200 KV cryo-electron microscope.

The University of Georgia (UGA), a land-grant and sea-grant university with statewide commitments and responsibilities is the state's oldest, most comprehensive, and most diversified institution of higher education (http://www.uga.edu/). UGA is currently ranked among the top 20 public universities in U.S. News & World Report. The University's main campus is located in Athens, approximately 65 miles northeast of Atlanta. UGA employs approximately 1,800 full-time instructional faculty and more than 7,600 full-time staff. The University's enrollment exceeds 36,000 students including over 27,500 undergraduates and over 8,500 graduate and professional students.

Interested applicants should send their CV and list of 2-3 references to Jarrod Mousa, Ph.D. at jarrod.mousa@uga.edu.

Publications of interest are below:

Wen, X., Mousa, J.J., Bates, J. Lamb, R.A., Crowe, J.E., Jardetzky, T.S. Structural basis for antibody cross-neutralization of respiratory syncytial virus and human metapneumovirus. Nature Microbiology 2, 2017, 16272.

Mousa, J.J., Kose, N., Matta, P., Gilchuk, P., Crowe, J.E. A novel pre-fusion conformation-specific neutralizing epitope on the respiratory syncytial virus fusion protein. Nature Microbiology 2, 2017, 16271.

Mousa, J.J., Sauer, M.F., Sevy, A.M., Finn, J.A., Bates, J.T., Alvarado, G., King, H.G., Loerinc, L.B., Fong, R.H., Doranz, B.J., Correia, B., Kalyuzhniy, O., Wen, X., Jardetzky, T.S., Schief, W.R., Ohi, M.D., Meiler, J., Crowe, J.E. Structural basis for non-neutralizing antibody competition at antigenic site II of the respiratory syncytial virus fusion protein. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 2016, 113, E6849-E6858.