One PhD student fellowship in Immunotherapy of cancer: “Safety-Enhanced Chimeric Antigen Receptors (SECAR)”  is available for a period of three years, from September 2024.  This PhD student fellowship is supported by Helse Sør Øst.

The Section for Cellular Therapy is home to one of Europe’s biggest and most modern GMP facilities for cellular products and also provides cellular products for industry trials abroad. The section counts 35 employees split in a clinical ward and the Translational Research Unit (18 employees), which is developing pre-clinical solutions in cancer immunotherapy. These include TCR, CAR and vaccine research. We have produced the first Norwegian CAR molecule, anti-CD37CAR (Köksal, Dillard et al. 2019, Caulier et al. 2024), among a collection of almost 20 prepared either from our own stock of antibodies or from antibodies we generated ourselves. Our facility has the capacity to run pre-clinical validations of CAR molecules. We also develop therapeutic TCR, and our first TCR was also the first ever tested in an academic clinical trial in Scandinavia (Radium-1 TCR, NCT03431311; Maggadottir et al. 2024). Our discoveries have led to the establishment of two biotechs: Ultimovacs and Zelluna AS. Our unit is located at the Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator (https://occincubator.com/), next to the Radium Hospital.

Oslo University Hospital is a workplace with great diversity. We believe this is essential to perform the tasks required of us. Therefore, we pursue diversity among our job applicants and encourage everyone to apply regardless of who you are and what background you have.

 

Kvalifikasjoner:

The candidates must hold a Master’s degree in Biology or Biochemistry, obtained with grades sufficient to be enrolled in the PhD program of the University of Oslo. Other corresponding education in science (chemistry, physics, medicine, pharmacy, etc.) will be evaluated. Knowledge and practical experience in two of the following domains is necessary and should be documented:
-          cellular biology (primary T-cell culture and functional assay)
-          immunology (flowcytometry, MACS, PBMC isolation, ELISA)
-          molecular biology (RNA isolation, RT-qPCR, retrovirus)
-          animal experiment (FELASA or equivalent)
We are seeking highly motivated talents interested in working in cancer immunotherapy. The candidate needs to be flexible, hardworking and independent. Our scientists work in different projects and teams, and the candidate will have to share and collaborate. Applicants must be fluent in English. 

Personlige egenskaper:

- Application letter (1 page maximum) containing a short description of the previous work where you document your experience with the required techniques


- CV (2 pages maximum) which should summarize education and previous positions. It should also include a list of laboratory techniques mastered, finalised and         expected scientific publications and the name/contact details of 2 references


- Official copies of educational certificates (University level) with grades


Please respect the document length: exceeding document size and addition of unrequested documents might lead to disqualification