Universidad San Pablo CEU (CEU) is a young university founded in Madrid in 1993. CEU is committed to academic and professional excellence, aiming for the best quality in education, research and internationalization. CEU is a specialized University and structures its studies on three main fields of knowledge: “Social sciences and humanities”, “Health and life sciences” and “Architecture and Engineering”.

CEU facilities include 8 Research Centers, 43 Research Groups and 11 Core Research Facilities which sum an area of 3,400 m2 devoted to research. Over the past 3 years, University:

• Has been granted 35 competitive research projects

• Achieves collaborations with Industry meaning 65% of R&D funding.

• Obtained almost € 1M from European Commission 7th Framework Programme and is participating in three H2020 projects, including a MSCA-IF grant.

CEU is looking for a highly motivated candidate to apply for MSCA-IF-2017 calls. Together with the selected candidate a proposal will be written and submitted. The involvement of the selected candidate in the proposal writing process will provide ample opportunity to tailor the proposal to her / his research interests. A successful application will result in an appointment under approved conditions.

The Institute for Applied Molecular Medicine (IMMA), Directed by Domingo Barber PhD. is part of the School of Medicine of USP.

It is a Research Center created to develop specialized research, teaching and technology transfer between the University and its associated Hospitals in areas such as Physiology, Pathology, Diagnosis and development of new therapies for several human diseases, all of them from a genetic, molecular and cellular point of view.

IMMA is equipped with state of the art equipment for:

• Transcriptomic analysis: Affimetrix Gene Atlas Platform, Real Time HT 7900 - Applied Biosystems, QIAcube - Qiagen, NanoDrop 2000 - Thermo Scientific, Experion – BioRad;

• Proteomic analysis: Flow Cytometer Accuri C6 Attune® - Applied Biosystems, Luminex MAP Technology, Invitrogen.

• Histologic analysis: Leica SCN400 scanner, Leica CTR 6000, Leica TP 1020 and Leica Bond-Max. Additionally we have a cell culture laboratory equipped with CO2 incubators, culture hoods, centrifuge, optical microscope, water bath and freezers (-20 and -80C).

Research has been funded so far by “Instituto de Salud Carlos III”, private funding and renowned international pharmaceutical companies.  Our focus is identifying the underlying causes that trigger allergic inflammation, identifying new therapeutic targets and biomarkers as well as to uncover immunological tolerance mechanisms.

We have a deep formative vocation, providing a suitable environment to guarantee a successful fellows training.

This research line has just started in January 2016 and is funded by Spanish “Instituto de Salud Carlos III” for the next three years. 

The aim of our research is to identify new biomarkers associated with airway remodeling in allergic asthma, which may be useful to evaluate the progression of the disease, as well as to design new therapies in severe endotypes of patients that do not respond to conventional treatments with glucocorticoids, immunotherapy and anti-IgE. 

We have developed a translational research program in airway epithelial remodeling with two main areas: 

1) Basic research, using in vitro air-liquid interface (ALI) cell cultures, which will mimic the in vivo bronchial epithelium environment. This system will be used to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the loss of epithelial cell barrier integrity that characterized the airway remodeling process. 

2) Clinical research, in which we will recruit patients perfectly identified and stratified by their response to the treatment. This will be done in the area of Spain with the higher exposition to HDM that is Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. We will obtain biological samples (serum, sputum…) from each patient and develop metabolomics, transcriptomic and epigenetic screenings. To perform the metabolomic analysis we are collaborating with CEMBIO, a state- of-the-art metabolomics research group in Pharmacy Faculty at USP. 

At the deadline for the submission of proposals (14/09/2017), researchers (*): 

- Shall be in possession of a doctoral degree or have at least four years of full-time equivalent research experience. 

- Must not have resided or carried out their main activities in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the abovementioned deadline. 

An expression of interest shall be sent before 15th of June 2017. Your file should contain the following elements: 

• A short CV: Only CVs with considerable scientific achievements will be considered. Candidates should have an excellent track record of research; they should demonstrate the ability to grow into scientific/technological leadership roles. 

• A two-page research proposal. 

• A short statement explaining why CEU would be the best host institution for your research. 

• Two letters of reference.