• A completed academic Master’s degree
• The tasks of the PhD student include the implementation of following methods: immunological methods (immunofluorescence, FACS), cell biological methods (cell culture of monocytes and DCs, stimulations) and molecular biology methods (RT-PCR, RNA isolation)
• Applicants should be reliable and able to work in a team and have good practical experience in diverse cell biological and immunological research skills and with the methods mentioned above
• Experience in cell culture is an advantage
• In addition, we expect the results to be documented on the computer with the Windows programs Word, Excel, Power Point, GraphPad Prism.

The research group, led by dermatologist Prof. Dr. Claudia Günther, investigates how innate immunity initiates autoimmune diseases, with a particular focus on autoinflammatory and autoimmune processes driven by chronically elevated type I interferon responses.

The PhD project is embedded in the Research Unit FOR 6059, “LUCID – Defining the Immunopathology of Cutaneous Lupus,” a consortium of seven German research institutions. The projects focus on the spatial and functional characterization of monocytes and on the activation and localization of inflammasomes in the skin of patients with cutaneous lupus erythematosus. The successful candidates will be expected to collaborate closely with the teams within the LUCID consortium.