Trinity is Ireland's leading university and is ranked 87th in the world (QS World University Rankings 2025).
Founded in 1592, the University is steeped in history with a reputation for excellence in education, research, and innovation, which has been inspiring generations of thinkers for over 400 years.
The Translational Immunopathology group seeks to appoint a 3-year postdoctoral researcher to investigate the role of Dendritic Cells (DC) in the pathogenesis of human autoimmune diseases.
While environmental, genetic, and epigenetic factors have all been linked to the development of autoimmune diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), a key universally accepted initiating factor in disease development is the loss of tolerance to harmless self-antigens.
Functionally this results in the immunological targeting of healthy cells and tissues leading to inflammation and damage.
Currently, most treatment approaches use agents that suppress the immune system or inflammatory response.
However, there is no currently available treatment to re-establish self-tolerance, the key driving factor in the initiation of disease.
Dendritic cells are widely accepted as having a nonredundant role in maintaining and controlling this tolerance to self-antigen.
However, the breakdown of this function is a driving force in the onset of many autoimmune diseases.
Therefore, therapeutically targeting DC in a disease setting may provide a unique opportunity to act as a molecular switch, moving DC away from autoreactivity towards tolerance.
The aim of this research project will be to examine if restoration of immunological tolerance in human autoimmune diseases can be achieved by metabolic reprogramming of human DC.
This work will involve extensive collaboration with clinical and translational research colleagues in St Vincent's University Hospital, St James Hospital, Trinity Translational Medicine Institute and Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute.
Please see full job description and application procedure below.
Application Procedure: