Research Fellow - London, United Kingdom - London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Verified Company

London, United Kingdom

4 weeks ago

Posted by:

Tom O´Connor

beBee Recruiter

Description

Salary:

- £42,875 to £48,691 per annum, pro rata

Closing Date:

Sunday 20 August 2023
Reference:
MRC-MRC The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is a worldleading centre for research and postgraduate education in public and global health. Our mission is to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide; working in partnership to achieve excellence in public and global health research, education and translation of knowledge into policy and practice.

The MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit is a semi-autonomous Unit of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and an on-campus partner of the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI).

The Unit was established in 1988 to improve the understanding and control of the HIV epidemic in Uganda and globally, following a request from the Uganda Government to the United Kingdom (UK) Government.

The Unit is based at the UVRI Entebbe campus and at field stations in Masaka and Kyamulibwa.

In 2017, the Unit broadened its work beyond HIV to include other infectious diseases and neglected, endemic, emerging and re-emerging infections as well as expanding its work in Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).

The Unit joined LSHTM on the 1 February 2018 creating a new partnership that is boosting research capacity into some of the current and emerging health issues in Africa and globally.

The post holder will lead the Bioscience work package of the NIHR Global Health Group on Vaccines for vulnerable people in Africa (VAnguard).

Vaccines are among the successful public health interventions. However, not all communities benefit equally.

Various factors, including biological, social, health system and political factors, interact to reduce vaccine effectiveness and impact on vulnerable communities.

Populations living in low-income or rural areas have been shown to have impaired vaccine immunogenicity, but little is known about the underlying biological mechanisms.

The VAnguard project goal is to identify modifiable structural, social, and biological determinants of impaired vaccine impact in vulnerable African communities and develop integrated strategies to address them.

Bioscience work package is aimed at investigating the biological drivers and mechanisms of population differences in vaccine responses.

The post-holder will contribute to the design of research work to be conducted by the work package and analysis of data that will be generated in this project; and reviewing the literature on the factors that influence vaccine immunogenicity with a focus on identifying modifiable extrinsic factors relevant to Africa.

The post holder, in collaboration with other researchers in the team, will use data and samples from our trials to explore mechanisms and identify biomarkers (nutritional and other metabolic biomarkers and immunological markers) of adverse biological status with respect to vaccine responses.

The VAnguard programme is a collaboration between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI), the MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit (MUL) and the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya

The post is part-time 17.5 hours per week, 0.5 FTE and fixed-term until 28 February 2026. The post is funded by the NIHR and is available from 1 August 2023.

Please note that if you are shortlisted and are unable to attend on the interview date it may not be possible to offer you an alternative date.

**The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is committed to being an equal opportunities employer. We believe that when people feel respected and included, they can be more creative, successful, and happier at work. While we have more work to do, we are committed to building an inclusive workplace, a community that everyone feels a part of, which is safe, respectful, supportive and enables all to reach their full potential.