CSIRO Postdoctoral Fellowship in Infectious Animal Diseases

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The Opportunity

• Do you have a PhD in immunology, virology, cell biology, bioinformatics, molecular biology, veterinary immunology or a related field?
• Want to contribute to research in the prevention, detection and response to exotic disease threats?
• Join CSIRO – Australia’s leading scientific research organisation!

CSIRO Early Research Career (CERC) Postdoctoral Fellowships provide opportunities to scientists and engineers who have completed their doctorate and have less than three years of relevant postdoctoral work experience. These fellowships aim to develop the next generation of future leaders of the innovation system.

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a vector-borne disease of cattle. It is one of the most economically important viral diseases of cattle due to its impacts on animal health, production and trade. It is now present in South-East Asia, and the CERC fellow will support key preparedness activities, develop our research portfolio and contribute to enhanced response capability should an incursion occur.

This role is part of a “Team Sport” CERC Fellowship where two CERC Fellows work with multiple teams collaborating on an overarching, multi-disciplinary research project to characterise lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) infection. Each CERC Fellow will lead an individual sub-project, contributing their expertise, and working closely with the other team members will aim to deliver significant scientific and translational impact on a broad research topic. 

An opportunity exists for an innovative and creative early career researcher to join a team of CERC postdoctoral fellows and scientists who will collectively investigate the host-immune responses to LSDV. Working closely with other team members, this CERC fellow will develop novel ‘immunomics’ capabilities and significantly strengthen Australia’s biosecurity preparedness for an exotic animal disease by blending multiple facets of immunological research with computational skills in bioinformatics.

This foundational research will aid in developing novel vaccine platforms by understanding the immune response to infection. The CERC Fellow will correlate single-cell transcriptomic signatures with disease outcomes and functional immunity, such as neutralising antibody responses to optimise vaccine antigens, delivery modalities and prime-boost schedules. Novel sequencing techniques such as Ribo-seq will enable a more detailed understanding of viral immune evasion strategies for better vaccines and resilience technologies. In this way, the big data generated will enable translational outputs.

Your duties will include:

• Carry out innovative, impactful research of strategic importance to CSIRO that will, where possible, lead to novel and important scientific outcomes.
• Recognise and exploit opportunities for innovation and the generation of new theoretical perspectives and progress opportunities for the further development or creation of new lines of research.
• Utilise design thinking methodology to plan and prepare research proposals and apply non-academic impact methodology to research projects.
• Carry out research investigations requiring originality, creativity and innovation.

To be considered you will need:

Essential

• A doctorate (or will shortly satisfy the requirements of a PhD) in a relevant discipline area, such as immunology, virology, cell biology, bioinformatics, molecular biology, veterinary immunology or similar. Please note: To be eligible for this role, you must have no more than 3 years (or full-time equivalent) of postdoctoral research experience.
  High level written and oral communication skills with the ability to represent the research team effectively internally and externally, including presenting research outcomes at national and international conferences.
• A sound history of publication in peer-reviewed journals and/or authorship of scientific papers, reports, grant applications or patents.
• A record of scientific innovation and creativity, including the ability and willingness to incorporate novel ideas and approaches into scientific investigations.

Desirable

• Remain productive, positive and resilient in complex, ambiguous and/or uncertain environments.
• The ability to work effectively as part of a multi-disciplinary, potentially regionally dispersed research team, plus the motivation and discipline to carry out autonomous research.
• Experience in planning and executing RNA sequencing experiments.
• Experience in using bioinformatic tools to analyse next-generation sequencing data.
• Experience in cell culture.
• Knowledge of ATAC-Seq and Ribo-Seq.
• Basic proficiency in programming languages like "R' or 'Python'.

For full details about this role, please view the Position Description

Eligibility

Applications for this position are open to Australian/New Zealand Citizens, Australian Permanent Residents, or you must either hold or be able to obtain a valid working visa for the specified term of the fellowship.

Appointment to this role is subject to provision of a national police check and may be subject to other security/medical/character requirements.

Flexible Working Arrangements

We work flexibly at CSIRO, offering a range of options for how, when and where you work. 

Diversity and Inclusion

We are working hard to recruit people representing the diversity across our society, and ensure that all our people feel supported to do their best work and feel empowered to let their ideas flourish. 

About CSIRO

At CSIRO Australia's national science agency, we solve the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. We put the safety and wellbeing of our people above all else and earn trust everywhere because we only deal in facts. We collaborate widely and generously and deliver solutions with real impact.

CSIRO is committed to values-based leadership to inspire performance and unlock the potential of our people.

Join us and start creating tomorrow today!

How to Apply

Please apply on-line and provide a cover letter and CV that best demonstrate your motivation and ability to meet the requirements of this role.