Postdoctoral Position in Neuroimmunology

The Department of Biomedicine (DBM), a joint venture of the University of Basel and the University Hospitals Basel, brings together basic and clinical scientists to advance the understanding of health and disease. With more than 67 research groups and over 800 employees across six locations in Basel, the DBM offers a collaborative and international environment that fosters innovation, excellence, and impactful research. The Clinical Neuroimmunology group, led by Prof. Tobias Derfuss, is offering a fully funded postdoctoral position focused on autoimmune diseases affecting the nervous system, particularly multiple sclerosis and myasthenia gravis. The Research Center for Clinical Neuroimmunology and Neuroscience Basel (RC2NB), headed by Professor Ludwig Kappos, is a non-profit foundation advancing research in multiple sclerosis and related neuroimmune disorders.

• Conduct research to understand the cause of multiple sclerosis, focusing on interactions between autoreactive B cells, the lymphotropic virus EBV, and the cellular anatomy of the central nervous system.
• Engineer human B cells to express a B cell receptor of interest, enabling native-like class switch, somatic hypermutation, and plasma cell differentiation.
• Test hypotheses about how peripherally circulating B cells develop into CNS-resident, antibody-secreting cells and study their contribution to the development of multiple sclerosis.
• Potentially exploit research findings for therapeutic applications.
• Utilize experimental methods including molecular and cell biology, flow cytometry, histology and microscopy, protein methods, bioinformatics, and likely work with immune-humanized mice.