Key Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the PI, play a lead role in ILRI’s research on the molecular and cellular mechanisms leading to tolerance towards Theileria parva, the causative agent of East Coast fever (ECF), in African Indigenous cattle with specific single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) associated with this tolerance.

Activities include:

• Perform in vitro infectivity assays with T. parva sporozoites and lymphocytes from tolerant and susceptible animals.
• Perform cell proliferation and flow cytometry assays to characterize the parasites’ subcellular tropism in tolerant and susceptible animals.
• Plan experiments to generate qPCR and transcriptomics data of infected cells.
• Conduct genome editing experiments in stable T. parva Muguga-infected lymphocytes (TpM) lines to identify/confirm genes responsible for the in vivo ECF-tolerance and in vitro proliferation phenotypes.
• Present research findings at regular lab meetings.
• Present papers at international scientific conferences.
• Publish results in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
• Contribute to the development of resource mobilization proposals as appropriate.

Requirements

• PhD in Cellular Biology, Cancer Biology, Host-Pathogen Interaction or Mammalian Innate Immunity.
• Proven extensive experience working with flow cytometry and cell separation by FACS or MACS columns.
• Proven experience in executing cell proliferation assays.
• Ability to perform qPCR assays, prepare samples for transcriptomic analysis, and other molecular biology assays.
• Experience in parasitology or characterizing apoptotic pathways is an added advantage.
• Prior experience in performing luciferase reporter assays is a plus.
• Experience with CRISPR-Cas genome editing in mammalian cells is an advantage.