Postdoctoral Fellow in Translational TB Vaccine Development Statens Serum Institut in Denmark

The TB Vaccine Research Group at Statens Serum Institut is recruiting a postdoctoral fellow to help advance a translational tuberculosis vaccine program within the Novo Nordisk Foundation Initiative for Vaccines and Immunity (NIVI).

This position centers on the interface between experimental immunology and vaccine development. The postdoc will lead an in vivo and translational workstream aimed at understanding how protective immunity is generated in the airways and how those insights can be used to prioritize and mature next-generation TB vaccine strategies. The project is designed to connect mechanistic immunology with preclinical decision-making, so the successful candidate will not only generate data but also help define which approaches are most promising for further development.

The work is embedded in the Department of Infectious Disease Immunology and the SSI Center for Vaccine Research, giving access to a strong translational environment with the ability to move research findings toward clinical evaluation. Within NIVI, the TB program focuses on biomarkers and mechanisms of airway immunity, with an emphasis on moving beyond classical systemic Th1 responses toward broader, locally positioned immune responses in the lungs and airways.

The project is part of a coordinated TB vaccine work package involving close collaboration with a companion postdoctoral project at the University of Copenhagen. While the other project focuses on antibody-mediated immunity and functional B-cell epitopes, this post is responsible for vaccine evaluation in relevant translational models. Together, the projects aim to integrate antibody, CD4 T-cell, and CD8 T-cell immunity into improved TB vaccine strategies.

Scientifically, the work will test whether airway-targeted vaccination can strengthen local immune memory and protection against pulmonary TB, and whether systemic priming followed by pulmonary boosting offers advantages. Initial studies will compare delivery platforms, routes, and immunization regimens using an established TB vaccine antigen, with promising strategies then combined with novel antigen constructs from the companion project. A longer-term goal is to down-select a next-generation vaccine strategy for validation in advanced animal models.

The successful candidate will join a dynamic international team of scientists, postdoctoral fellows, technicians, PhD students, and translational collaborators. The environment is collaborative and cross-disciplinary, with opportunities to contribute to publications, presentations, project coordination, and strategic planning across NIVI and SSI.

Supervisor: Group PI Rasmus Mortensen.