ESR Application form
- ESR 9: ERAP modulation as an innovative strategy for cancer treatment
| Recruiting Institution: Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù, IT PhD institution: Università di Roma, IT |
Supervisor: Dr. Doriana Fruci |
| Project Description An ESR position is available to work on a translational research project focused on understanding how modulation of antigen processing can be exploited for cancer treatment in the environment of the Oncohaematology Research Centre at the Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù (OPBG) in Rome, Italy. The research centre offers a multidisciplinary work environment focused on immunology, oncohaematology and molecular biology in a fully equipped research facility with high-tech systems supporting genomics, metagenomics, proteomics, microarray technology, flow cytometry and cell sorting, mass cytometry, cell and molecular biology, fluorescence microscopy and 3D high-throughput imaging. OPBG has established agreements with animal facilities located near the Hospital. The ESR will work on the team led by D. Fruci interested in understanding how to exploit antigen processing to turn cold tumors in hot ones by making them responsive to immunotherapy. The selected candidate will study the function of ERAP aminopeptidases in the context of immune content and soluble factors in the tumor microenvironment of cold and hot murine tumoral models. Modulation of ERAP aminopeptidases is known to induce a change in the immunopeptidome that could be exploited in combination with other therapies to make tumors more immunogenic and influence their immune content. This project will focus on generating CRISPR/Cas9 ERAP KO murine tumor cell lines and evaluating the efficacy of ERAP inhibitors in organoid cultures, studying the immunopeptidome and characterizing the immune microenvironment of tumors grown subcutaneously or orthotopically. The candidate will collaborate with a fellow PhD student studying the function of ERAP aminopeptidases in NK cell-mediated anti-tumor responses. |
|
| Essential Background: training in immunology and molecular and cellular biology. | Desirable Background: training in flow cytometry, cell imaging and 3D cultures. |
| Local Requirement | |
| Planned Secondments: Academic to National Center for Scientific Research Demokritos (Athens, GR) 2M, to isolate and identify MHC-I peptides in ERAP-interfered cells; Industrial to OCR (Lille, FR) 4M, for immune-histochemical analysis of ERAP in 50 canine tumours biopsies for comparative oncology | |
| Planned Starting Date: 1st Oct. 2021 | Application Deadline 5th Apr 2021 |