Postdoctoral position available in computational

modeling of mRNA-based products

Laboratory of Computational modeling CIBIO Department, University of Trento

Project description

mRNA technology has recently demonstrated the ability to change the timeline for developing and delivering a new vaccine from years to months.As member of the Laboratory of Computational Modeling at the University of Trento, the applicant will have the opportunity to join theinternational consortiumof R3 performers, whichcollectsawide range of leading organizationsaround the world (academicinstitutions, biotechcompanies, private and public research centers),andto contribute to the development of novel mRNA-basedproductsaddressing viral and non-viral targets.We will promote the development of quantitative models providing a systems view of the main biological processes involved innovel mRNA-based products with the aim ofdeveloping a tool able to simulate the generated immune response at organism level.The research will initially focus onpredicting the pharmacodynamic profile,the potency (amount of mRNA to provide to obtain the desired response), and the reactogenicity(the quantitative extent of innate-immunity response induced by the mRNA-based product).During the project, the successful candidatewill join an interdisciplinary andhighly motivatedgroup across University of Trento and Fondazione COSBI. The candidatewill be in charge ofdevelopingcomputationalmodels of novel mRNA-basedproducts,leveragingon an effective systems biology pipeline already targetingmRNA vaccines and recentlydeveloped by the group(Leonardelli et al.2021; Selvaggio et al.2021).

Important links

Laboratory website:https://www.cibio.unitn.it/1321/laboratory-of-computational-modeling

CIBIO Department: https://www.cibio.unitn.it

Fondazione COSBI: https://www.cosbi.eu

Wellcome Leap R3 project description: https://wellcomeleap.org/r3

Job details

Type of contract: post-doc researcher fellowshipsApplication decree numbers: 45/2022

Application call: https://www.unitn.it/en/ateneo/bando/72349/department-cibio-call-for-the-selections-for-the-awarding-of-no-1-research-fellowship-decree-no-4520

Application deadline:12.00 (noon) of March 7th, 2022

Salary:28,850 euros/year gross (about 25,500 euros/year net)

Duration:1 year, renewable until project ending (2024-2025)

Start date: March/April 2022

Contact person: Luca Marchetti(PI), luca.marchetti@unitn.it

Activity venue:University of Trento (Laboratory of Computational Modeling), and Fondazione COSBI, Rovereto(main project venue). Depending on the emergency rules related to the COVID-19 pandemic, some level of remote working might be taken under consideration. 

Your required skills and experience

To apply to the call, the following requirements are mandatory:

•a PhD title in computational biology, bioinformatics, mathematics, physics,or related fields awarded by an Italian or foreign university, or an equivalent qualification obtained abroad.

•Excellent knowledge of the English language.

•Documented postdoctoral experience in computationalmodelling of biological processes.

•Ability of scientific supervision, working in team and meeting project deadlines.

•Knowledge of the main computationaltechniques for computationalmodelcalibration, validation and qualification.

•Programming skills in at least one language among MATLAB, R and Python