The Center for Immunology of Viral infections (CiViA) at the Department of Biomedicine, Health, Aarhus University, invites applications for a position as academic employee to support the area of animal research as per 1 June 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter. The position is a permanent full-time position.

We offer a vibrant and stimulating international research environment, and a friendly and welcoming atmosphere within the group and the wider Department.

About CiViA and the Department of Biomedicine

CiViA is a Center of Excellence, with funding from the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF). Understanding how the immune system fights viruses represent one of the main challenges in modern-day science. At CiViA, we study the first line of defense against viral infections, with the goal of describing novel mechanisms mediating anti-viral defense. CiViA consists of five research groups based at AU and at the Technical University Munich (TUM) in Germany, covering a wide range of methods and techniques in basic and clinical immunology, and branching into virology, neuroscience and genetics.

The Department of Biomedicine prioritises diversity and a good work environment, as this is a prerequisite for groundbreaking research. In a diverse and international research environment, dedicated employees are looking to generate new knowledge within biomedical research areas such as infection and inflammation, membranes, neuroscience and personalised medicine. The Department of Biomedicine provides research-based teaching of the highest quality and is responsible for a large part of the medical degree programme. Academic staff contribute to the teaching. English is the preferred language in the laboratory, at meetings and at seminars. The department employs approx. 500 people from all over the world, and they make use of the department's modern laboratory-, core- and animal facilities. The Department of Biomedicine focuses on innovation, entrepreneurship and collaboration with business and industry, and numerous researchers from the department have established companies to develop new medicinal treatments founded in professional scientific basic research. You can read more about the department here and about the faculty here.

Your job responsibilities

You will contribute to the center by supporting researchers in research projects focusing on immune responses to viral infections in mice. You will be involved in projects from different laboratories within CiViA. You will join a multi-disciplinary research team working on understanding the mechanisms driving viral disease and the effects of different interventions. Your tasks will be to support various laboratory analyses (mainly qPCR and histology), supporting experimental animal studies, data handling and analyses. You will be expected to contribute to and support the ongoing research projects in CiViA on an ad hoc basis and to support the lab management.

Your main tasks will be supporting researchers in the researchers’ following tasks:

• Prepare and participate in research projects for the core facility.
• Communicate and report laboratory results in a professional manner.
• Conduct routine and standardized experiments, using advanced research techniques specific to subject matter of the research project.
• Developing and characterizing new virus infection methods.
• Test virus infection in different gene-modified animals or with pharmaceutical reagents.
• Some degree of weekend work will be required (only few hours/weekend-day).
• Perform other duties as assigned.

You will report to Professor Søren Riis Paludan and Associate Professor Line Reinert. In your daily work, you will work under the supervision of Associate Professor Line Reinert and in close collaboration with senior academic staff in the laboratory.

Your competences

We prefer that you have:

• A Master’s/PhD degree and passed a Laboratory Animal Science course.
• Familiarity with supporting experiments in animals.
• Experience in or knowledge of qPCR, histology, imaging, and animal surgery is not required but will be considered as an advantage.
• Excellent organizational skills, with the ability to deal with and prioritize a range of ongoing tasks at the same time, and to cope under pressure.

As interactions with users of the animal core facility are a crucial part of the position, we expect you to be positive, interactive, service-minded and with a supportive mind-set, and to see it as a goal to move the users’ research projects forward. Therefore, you as a person, you have good interpersonal skills, are inclusive and team-oriented, friendly and helpful, and able to contribute to a good work environment.

We expect you to be fluent in oral and written English, which is the preferred language in the laboratory, at meetings and in seminars.

Questions about the position

If you have any questions about the position, please contact Professor Søren Riis Paludan, tel.: +45 2899 2066 or email: srp@biomed.au.dk, or Associate Professor Line Reinert by email: line.reinert@biomed.au.dk.

Your place of work will be the Department of Biomedicine, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.

We expect to conduct interviews in November 2024.
 

Terms of employment

Terms of employment and pay are regulated by the collective agreement between the Ministry of Taxation and AC (the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations).

Application

Your application must include the following:

• Motivated application
• Curriculum Vitae
• Indication of education (a copy of the diplomas should be uploaded)
• References/recommendations can be uploaded separately in the recruitment system

We refer to the faculty’s Guideline for applicants.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants.

The application must be submitted via Aarhus University’s recruitment system, which can be accessed under the job advertisement on Aarhus University's website.