The aim

VacPath aims to develop novel vector-based vaccines eliciting mucosal immunity against the intracellular bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. The network joins five academic European research groups and two SMEs within The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Italy. PhD students will be appointed at one of these locations and receive additional training through courses and secondments at network partners.

Project description

In this project, the PhD students will be educated in the diverse aspects of vaccine development, from fundamental research to valorization of results. They will design and construct innovative and safe virus-, bacterium-, or plasmid-based vector vaccines inducing both cellular and humoral immunity, evaluate their immunogenicity and unravel the mechanisms underlying their functioning to further optimize vaccine design.

Their responsibilities will include the design and execution of experiments based on leads from a previous project, communication with network partners, data analysis, and manuscript preparation. They will have the opportunity to work in different European laboratories and get a taste of different research cultures.