Job Order Detail

Description

The Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), Canadas Centre for Pandemic Research, is a world leader in infectious disease research and vaccine development for humans and animals. Located at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, VIDO is home to one of the largest and most advanced containment level 3 facilities in the world. To strengthen the preparedness for emerging infectious diseases we are currently expanding our infrastructure to include containment level 4 capacity, a GMP vaccine manufacturing facility, and a new animal housing facility. Our vision includes having the capacity to study any emerging disease in any animal model embracing a One Health approach to prevent emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in humans and animals.

Position Summary

Dr. Aneesh Thakur, Principal Investigator, Laboratory of Vaccine Engineering, and Immunology (LVEI) is seeking an outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow focusing on Influenza vaccine development to join his team.

H5N1, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), also known as bird flu, is a serious disease and requires rapid response because it is highly contagious and often fatal to chickens. Most efforts to develop vaccines against H5N1 infection in chickens have relied on traditional vaccine platforms that do not induce a strong immune response and provide only limited immunity due to rapid virus mutation and rearrangement. Messenger RNA is a promising vaccine technology to develop novel H5N1 vaccines in chicken. Moreover, aerosol delivery of mRNA can generate protective immunity in the lungs against HPAI. However, little is known about how to design safe mRNA vaccines for administration in the respiratory tract and how to achieve potent airway mucosal immunity. The purpose of this project is to develop and test an inhalable mRNA vaccine against H5N1 infection in chicken. The project will combine approaches in drug delivery, immunology, virology, and in vivo infection models.