The laboratory of Parasitology of the Faculty of Medicine of the “Universite Libre de Bruxelles” (ULB)

has a position available for a highly motivated postdoctoral scientist with a great interest in and knowledge of human

immunology and infectious diseases.

Project

“revention in congenital Chagas disease : parasitological, placental and immunological markers”The congenital transmission of protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas disease, occurs in 5% of

newborns to seropositive mothers and is one of the major routes of spreading Chagas disease worldwhile. It is currently

not possible to prevent congenital transmission. Since most newborns congenitally infected are asymptomatics but at

risk to develop later on severe disease if not treated, prevention and control requires screening of mothers and their

children. However, early detection of congenital infection is currently not optimal due to the lack of sensitivity of existing

methods, whereas treatment close to delivery is almost 100% effective and with few toxic side effects, which is not the

diagnosis is delayed for months. In this context, studies to improve early diagnosis are a priority. We aim to improve our

knowledge on the mechanisms of vertical transmission to enable define risk factors. Accordingly, the project aims to

characterize parasitic, placental and immunological factors in clinical samples from binomials of seropositive women

and their newborns to find out atrisk factors of transmission and validate novel laboratory tools for early diagnosis of

congenital infection.

The project is funded by “ERANet-LAC”, a Network of the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American

and Caribbean States (CELAC) on Joint Innovation and Research Activities. It has been initiated by Dr A. Schijman

(Argentina) and is realized by a consortium of partners from Argentina, Chile, Spain and Belgium. The Lab of Parasitology

in Brussels is in charge of immunological studies aiming to compare the immune status of mothers transmitting the

parasite to their fetus to those that do not transmit it, and their respective newborns. It is supervised in Brussels by Dr

C. Truyens.

Selected references:

Hermann E et al, Blood, J Infect Dis 2004;189(7):1274‑81; Vekemans J et al, Infect Immun 2000;68(9):5430‑4; Cuna WR et al, J.

Parasitol, 2009;95(4):891‑4 ; Dauby et al, PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2009;3(12):e571 ; Guilmot et al, PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2013;7(6):e2291.

Juiz NA et al, J Infect Dis. 15 avr 2016;213(8):1299‑06.

Offer

We have funding for a post-doctoral position during 2 years, starting on 1st of February, 2017. You will be appointed

and paid accordingly.

The recipient may not have obtained his/her PhD graduate for more than 8 years and must be in situation of

international mobility, i.e. may not have resided, studied or worked in Belgium during more than 24 months during the

last 3 years immediately preceeding de initiation of the post-doctoral grant. More information can be found in the

“Vade-mecum des bourses de doctorat et de post-doctorat” from ULB (www.ulb.ac.be/drh/prc/prcdocs/

Vademecum_bourses.pdf ).

Working place : The laboratory of Parasitology is located on the Campus Erasme from ULB, at the periphery of the

Brussels Region (https://www.ulb.ac.be/campus/erasme/erasme.html )

Working langage : French

Profile

•You have a PhD degree in biological, (bio)medical or life sciences, with an orientation in human immunology

•You are particularly motivated and ambitious

•You have excellent supervision skills

•Experiments will involve cell culture, multi-color FACS, standard immunological/molecular approaches, and

manipulation with a class 3 pathogen (with L2+ practices) .

Application

Applications should include a detailed CV (including grades and class ranking), publication list, a motivation letter, and

names and contact information of two referees.

Selection criteria include excellent grades, research talent (as proven by the PhD thesis) and personal motivation.

Application should be sent to C. Truyens () no later than December 31, 2016