Post-doctoral position in Bioinformatics and Systems Immunology at the
Institut Curie of Paris
Application deadline: open from august 2012 until filled
Context and environment: Institut Curie is one of the largest European institutions
for cancer research with strong interdisciplinary traditions. It also comprises a
hospital specialized in cancer treatment, and therefore dispose of a continuum of
expertise from basic research to patient care. It is located in the center of Paris in
France, in a both cultural and scientific rich environment. Our immunology
department includes 8 independent research teams in the fields of basic and applied
immunology, working in a very collaborative and international environment. The open
position is in line with recent developments at the interface between immunology,
bioinformatics and systems biology. It is supported by an ERC (European Research
Council)-funded project.
More information: www.curie.fr and u932.curie.fr
Project: The project under the supervision of Vassili Soumelis, will be co-developed
in the two Inserm units of Institut Curie “Immunity and cancer” and “Bioinformatics
and Computational Systems Biology of Cancer”, respectively headed by S.
Amigorena and E. Barillot. Those immunology and bioinformatics teams have
established a tight and fruitful collaboration, which has been successful over the past
few years to improve our understanding of complex inflammatory and immune
reactions.
Living systems are open systems that change state and behavior in relation to their
environment. In this project, we consider the cell as the system of reference. We
study the reciprocal interaction between cell state and its environment. We study
dendritic cells of the immune system to address their interaction with environmental
stimuli mimicking important steps of an immune response. We also study how
immune cells integrate multiple information signals in complex inflammatory
environments. The ultimate goal is to understand intercellular communication
networks in diverse physiological and pathological conditions. Transcriptional
profiling is mostly used in order to assess the global state of the cells, and how this
state impacts the cellular response to individual or combined environmental stimuli.
This project is supported by an ERC grant “Integrative biology of human dendritic
cells”
Profile: Ideal candidate will have a PhD in statistics, applied mathematics,
bioinformatics or biology and good publication records. Theoretical and applied
knowledge in microarray data analysis, statistical signal processing, estimation
theory, random processes theory, model selection theory will be valued. Some
knowledge of cancer biology, cell biology and/or immunology is not mandatory but
would be appreciated. Excellent communication skills and team spirit as well as a
capacity to work in autonomy are essential. The project involves a tight interaction
between computational and experimental work.
Position: The position benefits from a one year funding, which can be used as a
start-up or as a prolongation of pre-existing fellowship. Selected candidate would
have to apply for independent post-doctoral funding before or during their initial
recruitment. Precise salary will depend on the funding agency, and past experience
of the candidate
The Curie post-doctoral program is highly competitive and only outstanding
candidates will be considered. Please send CV and two letters of reference to
vassili.soumelis@curie.net
Selected recent publications:
1: Volpe E, Servant N, Zollinger R, Bogiatzi SI, Hupé P, Barillot E, Soumelis V. A critical function for
transforming growth factor-beta, interleukin 23 and proinflammatory cytokines in driving and
modulating human T(H)-17 responses. Nat Immunol. 2008 Jun;9(6):650-7.
2: Volpe E, Touzot M, Servant N, Marloie-Provost MA, Hupé P, Barillot E, Soumelis V. Multiparametric
analysis of cytokine-driven human Th17 differentiation reveals a differential regulation of IL-17 and IL22 production. Blood. 2009 Oct 22;114(17):3610-4.
3: Guiducci C, Gong M, Xu Z, Gill M, Chaussabel D, Meeker T, Chan JH, Wright T, Punaro M, Bolland
S, Soumelis V, Banchereau J, Coffman RL, Pascual V, Barrat FJ. TLR recognition of self nucleic
acids hampers glucocorticoid activity in lupus. Nature. 2010 Jun 17;465(7300):937-41.
4: Lepelletier Y, Zollinger R, Ghirelli C, Raynaud F, Hadj-Slimane R, Cappuccio A, Hermine O, Liu YJ,
Soumelis V. Toll-like receptor control of glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis in human plasmacytoid
predendritic cells (pDCs). Blood. 2010 Nov 4;116(18):3389-97.
5: Cavalieri D, Rivero D, Beltrame L, Buschow SI, Calura E, Rizzetto L, Gessani S, Gauzzi MC, Reith
W, Baur A, Bonaiuti R, Brandizi M, De Filippo C, D'Oro U, Draghici S, Dunand-Sauthier I, Gatti E,
Granucci F, Gündel M, Kramer M, Kuka M, Lanyi A, Melief CJ, van Montfoort N, Ostuni R, Pierre P,
Popovici R, Rajnavolgyi E, Schierer S, Schuler G, Soumelis V, Splendiani A, Stefanini I, Torcia MG,
Zanoni I, Zollinger R, Figdor CG, Austyn JM. DC-ATLAS: a systems biology resource to dissect
receptor specific signal transduction in dendritic cells. Immunome Res. 2010 Nov 19;6:10.
6: Segura E, Valladeau-Guilemond J, Donnadieu MH, Sastre-Garau X, Soumelis V, Amigorena S.
Characterization of resident and migratory dendritic cells in human lymph nodes. J Exp Med. 2012
Apr 9;209(4):653-60.
7: Bogiatzi SI, Guillot-Delost M, Cappuccio A, Bichet JC, Chouchane-Mlik O, Donnadieu MH, Barillot
E, Hupé P, Chlichlia K, Efremidou EI, Aractingi S, Bayrou O, Soumelis V. Multiple-checkpoint inhibition
of thymic stromal lymphopoietin-induced T(H)2 response by T(H)17-related cytokines. J Allergy Clin
Immunol. 2012 Jul;130(1):233-240.e5.