The liver is critical in mediating organismal homeostasis. Previous studies from our group have shown that early in life innate lymphoctes are enriched in human organs. More recent studies suggest that innate lymphocytes including NK cells are critical in editing immune cell populations in tissues and thereby can provide protection against autoimmunity. However, this may also have consequences for the control of viral infections. During the lifespan the immune system faces time-window dependent challenges characterized by changes in microbial and virus exposure and tissue growth, resulting in an increased risk of infectious and immune-mediated diseases early in life. Specifically, young children are more susceptible to chronic hepatitis B virus infection.
In this project, the consequences of interactions between innate lymphcoytes and lymphocytes of the adapative immune system in the liver are investigated in the context of liver inflammation and hepatitis B virus infection. The studies build on analyses of observational studies, including several single cell omics and computational analyses and innovative human tissue-based organoid systems to decipher the molecular interactions between immune cells as well as parenchymal cells in tissue (re) generation, HBV infection and inflammation.
The goal is to understand critical developmental programs regulating liver immune development and identify pathways that can be targeted to prevent chronic HBV infection.
Main tasks:
- Experimental studies of liver organoid systems and liver immune cells, including planning of experimental design, experiments, documentation and statistical analysis of results; interpretation, discussion and presentation of results
- Computational analyses of high dimensional data, including flow cytometry, scRNAseq and spatial transcriptomics
- Scientific publishing, presentation at international conferences, communitty outreach
This position is temporary for 2 years due to third-party funding and starts on 1st of November 2026.
