Postdoctoral Researcher Neuroimmunology
Campus Charité Mitte
Research
limited
full-time
Neurology
Berlin
Working at Charité
We are seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Researcher with a strong background in human immunology and single-cell immune profiling. This role offers an exciting opportunity to work at the interface between the clinic and the laboratory, in a dynamic and international team studying antibody-mediated and autoimmune diseases of the nervous system. We follow patients over time and combine longitudinal sampling with single-cell immunology, antibody cloning and translational immunotherapy, which makes questions accessible that are usually out of reach in human disease.
The antibody & brain lab is deliberately interdisciplinary. Clinicians, laboratory scientists and bioinformaticians work in the same group, and the lab maintains its own computational arm covering antibody structure prediction, machine learning and immune repertoire analysis. You can find out more about the team and its research at antibodybrainlab.com.
The successful candidate will take responsibility for the single-cell analysis of paired cerebrospinal fluid and blood lymphocyte populations across the group's projects and will develop their own scientific line within this field. The position offers substantial scientific independence, access to a prospective patient cohort with ongoing recruitment, and the opportunity to shape a translational research programme from patient sample to molecular mechanism.
Overview of the position
- Take ownership of the group's single-cell workflow, from sample processing and sorting strategy through to data analysis and interpretation.
- Develop and optimise multicolour flow cytometry panels for lymphocyte populations in low-input clinical material, and perform cell sorting.
- Generate single-cell datasets from paired CSF and blood samples, including transcriptome and paired BCR/TCR repertoire data.
- Integrate flow cytometry, transcriptomic and repertoire data to characterise disease-associated lymphocyte populations and clonal dynamics over time.
- Develop and pursue an independent research question within the group's scientific focus, for example on the emergence of autoimmunity following infection of the central nervous system.
- Present findings at international conferences and lead manuscript preparation.
- Supervise doctoral and medical students within the team.
What we are looking for
- PhD in Immunology, Neuroscience, Systems Biology, Molecular Biology or a related discipline; strong background in immunology, in particular adaptive immune responses
- Extensive hands-on experience with primary human immune cells and proven expertise in multicolour or spectral flow cytometry, including panel design, optimisation, cell sorting and data analysis
- Hands-on experience with single-cell technologies, including scRNA-seq and immune repertoire sequencing, covering sample processing, sorting strategy and preparation of samples for sequencing
- Independent analysis of single-cell datasets in R or Python (e.g. Seurat, Scanpy), including quality control, integration, clustering, cell type annotation and differential expression
- Excellent organisational skills, the ability to run several projects in parallel, and fluency in spoken and written English; German is not required.
Desirable:
- experience with B cell biology, antibody responses or antibody engineering,
- experience with limited or low-input clinical material (e.g. CSF, fine-needle aspirates, biopsies),
- BCR/TCR repertoire and clonal lineage analysis,
- longitudinal sample collections and batch design,
- CITE-seq/cell hashing/multiplexing approaches,
- research experience in neuroinflammatory, autoimmune or post-infectious disease.
Charité offers you
- An established prospective cohort with ongoing recruitment and standardised paired CSF and blood sampling
- Embedding in the DFG-funded Clinical Research Unit BECAUSE-Y (Berlin Center for the Diagnosis, Understanding and Treatment of Antibody-mediated Neurological Diseases)
- A clinically embedded research environment with direct access to well-characterised patients; patient recruitment and clinical documentation are handled by the clinical team
- Access to core facilities for sequencing and cytometry, and room to build an independent scientific line, with support for first-author publications and for your own fellowship and grant applications
- The Berlin biomedical research environment, with close links to DZNE, MDC and BIH
Information regarding the position
- Paygrade E13 according to TVöD VKA-K. Your job grade depends on your job qualification whereas the experience level depends on the number of working years. The yearly gross salary is hereby provided based on a full time position excluding yearly bonus and additional pay. You may find further information here
- Working hours are 38.5 hours per week (Full-time).
- The position is limited until 31.12.2027, as it is tied to the project duration
- 30 days of paid vacation per year
- The application period ends on: 10.10.2026
- Position ID: 8219
If you have questions, please contact:
Dr. Momsen Reincke
momsen.reincke@charite.de