Lab-Escolano - Post-Doctoral Fellow

The Wistar Institute is a world leader in early-stage discovery science in the areas of cancer, immunology, and infectious disease. Wistar is committed to accelerating research advances from bench to bedside through brilliant science and distinctive approaches to collaboration among scientific investigators and academic and industry partners. Wistar’s dynamic environment supports the advancement of discoveries that will change the future of human health.

The Wistar Institute is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). All candidates must share our commitment to DEI. The Wistar Institute is especially interested in qualified candidates who can contribute, through their research, mentoring, and/or service, to the diversity and excellence of our academic/research community.

The Wistar Institute has an opening for a highly motivated Post-Doctoral Fellow to work in the laboratory of Dr. Amelia Escolano, at the Vaccine & Immunotherapy Center.

The Escolano lab is interested in vaccine design, and in the analysis of the humoral and cellular immune responses to vaccination and infection. Using HIV-1 as a model, and a combination of cutting-edge approaches and different animal models, the Escolano lab investigates the mechanisms governing the B-cell and antibody responses to novel forms of vaccination, aiming to define general guidelines for the design of efficacious vaccines against highly mutating pathogens, cancer-associated viruses and bacteria.

The laboratory has different translational and basic research projects available for consideration. Translational immunology is a major focus of this position. The multi-faceted nature of the projects will provide a highly collaborative environment and will facilitate training in multiple methodologies from different disciplines including basic immunology, molecular biology or structural biology.

Candidates will receive personalized training as required, will have the opportunity to mentor and train junior lab members, develop new methodologies, explore new and creative scientific paths, present their work at international conferences and enhance professional development skills.

Candidates must have a PhD (or equivalent) or be close to obtaining their doctoral degree. The Escolano lab is especially interested in recruiting recent PhD graduates with a background in immunology and molecular biology. Experience in the following areas is preferred: B cell biology, animal models, flow cytometry, antibody production, cell culture, serological characterization, molecular biology, virology and/or next-generation sequencing.

Competitive applicants will have strong critical thinking, organizational and communication skills and at least one peer-reviewed publication in an internationally recognized journal.

In addition to submitting the online application, interested individuals should e-mail their CV along with two letters of recommendation to Dr. Amelia Escolano, aescolano@wistar.org.

The Wistar Institute is located in the University City area of Philadelphia, in the heart of the University of Pennsylvania Campus. The Wistar Institute leads one of the most productive HIV research programs in the nation, and The Wistar HIV research program leads the Delaney Collaboratory to Cure HIV-1 Infection by Combination Immunotherapy (BEAT-HIV Collaboratory), a consortium of more than 60 top HIV researchers from leading academic research institutions. The Wistar Institute works in close collaboration with the Penn CFAR (Center for AIDS Research), one of 18 NIH-funded CFARs that includes over 200 investigators across the spectrum of HIV/AIDS disciplines. The Penn CFAR's mission is to support, facilitate and catalyze HIV/AIDS research on the Penn/CHOP/Wistar campus.

The Vaccine & Immunotherapy Center focuses the Institute’s strengths in immunology, virology and immune-oncology disciplines to improve public health through the development of preventative and therapeutic interventions for human disease. Scientists work in close collaboration with prominent institutions in the Philadelphia region as well as major research organizations around the country and the world. Our scientific interests include translational research on viruses such as HIV-1, Zika or the currently circulating SARS-CoV-2, bacteria and parasites, as well as on the development of immunotherapy approaches.

For more information about The Wistar Institute visit our website at www.wistar.org. 

We offer a competitive salary and excellent benefits package.