The Neves lab is an enthusiastic, collaborative, interdisciplinary, and dynamic team with a positive working culture that delivers excellent research. Our work focuses on studying cellular interactions in the gut using organoid models to develop new therapeutic approaches to promote and restore intestinal and systemic health. We are based at the Centre for Host-Microbiome Interactions at King’s College London in central London, just steps away from London Bridge station. 

 

Food allergies are increasing, affect 8% of children and 10% of adults and can be life-threatening. With no cure, patients must avoid allergens and carry emergency medication, leading to restricted social lives and anxiety. While immunotherapy can raise the reaction threshold, it does not eliminate life-style limitations and risk of reactions. Urgent action is needed to develop definitive treatments for food allergies. Exposure to food allergens through the gastrointestinal tract is tolerogenic. Peanut consumption from the first year of life reduced peanut allergy by 81% in a randomised-controlled trial. This impressive effect was allergen-specific and sustained over time. However, the underlying immune mechanisms of oral tolerance induction to peanut are not well understood. In this research programme, we will use unique samples from young children undergoing their first oral exposure to peanut to explore the changes in the immune response to peanut induced by oral exposure. Their blood and intestinal immune cell populations will be analysed ex vivo and after co-culture with intestinal organoids to ascertain how these processes are regulated in the gut.

 

This work will be done in close collaboration with the Santos Lab at King’s College London. This collaborative effort will allow us to pinpoint key pathways involved in establishing oral tolerance to food allergens and explore how they can be modulated to develop curative treatments for food allergies.

 

The postdoctoral research associate is expected to develop the project, to maintain accurate records of performed experiments, to analyse and summarize research results, to write reports and manuscripts, to prioritize work and meet deadlines, to join in research group and departmental activities, and to contribute to their positive and inclusive research culture.

 

This is a full-time post (35 Hours per week), based at Guy’s Campus, and you will be offered a fixed term contract for 3 years.