Research Associate in Autoimmune Neurology, Arc Institute
Job Description
The Pluvinage Lab at Arc Institute is hiring a Research Associate for high-throughput antibody discovery in autoimmune neurology and neurodegeneration. The post is open until filled.
At a glance
- Post: Research Associate in Autoimmune Neurology
- Where: Arc Institute, Palo Alto, California, USA
- Closing date: none given. The post is open until filled
- Pay: the advertisement states no figure
Read the official Arc Institute advertisement before you apply.
The work
The lab’s goal is to improve the lives of patients with neurological disease by looking for undiagnosed autoimmunity, in rare unexplained cases and in common neurodegenerative conditions alike. Work starts from clinical observation and primary patient tissue, then uses functional genomics, protein display technologies and computational tools to ask how autoantibodies shape cognition.
The questions the lab asks are worth reading in full: how do autoantibodies regulate cognition, what is the source, target and mechanism of harmful autoantibodies in neurological disease, how could you remove the harmful ones while leaving the rest of the immune system intact, how does comorbid autoimmunity add to cognitive decline in neurodegeneration, and are there protective autoantibodies behind healthy brain ageing.
The approaches are discovery-driven and start with human samples (cerebrospinal fluid, PBMCs, brain tissue) from curated patient cohorts, together with CRISPR screens, phage display and immune repertoire sequencing. You would work with senior lab members across the full workflow: designing constructs and libraries, cloning and validating reagents, running screens across several protein display platforms, then analysing and validating what comes out.
What you need
- A strong foundation in molecular biology, and the appetite to learn protein display and antibody discovery methods
- Rigour: well-designed experiments, reliable reagents, reproducible results
- Comfort running an entire workflow, from sequence design and cloning through screening to data analysis
- Organised enough to run several experiments at once with careful sample tracking
About the employer
Arc Institute is an independent nonprofit research organisation working at the interface of artificial intelligence and biology. It was founded in 2021, is based in Palo Alto, and partners with Stanford University, UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco. Its own pitch is that its scientists get long-term funding and industry-scale resources while staying free to chase high-risk, long-horizon questions.
How to apply
Apply through the Arc Institute job page. No closing date is given, so apply early. Check the visa position before you start. US research employers differ on whether they sponsor, and some adverts say outright that they will not.
Browse more research jobs on ResearchJobs.in, or search our Find a supervisor page.
Hiring institution: Arc Institute
Official advertisement: job-boards.greenhouse.io
How to prepare for this application
- Human samples are the starting point. Any experience with CSF, PBMCs or post-mortem brain tissue is worth naming.
- Protein display is learnable here. The advert asks for molecular biology plus willingness, so lead with your cloning and screening record.
- Reproducibility is called out twice. Describe how you track samples and validate reagents.
- Check sponsorship before you invest time. It is the biggest single filter on US research applications from overseas.
About Arc Institute
Arc Institute is an independent nonprofit research organisation working at the interface of artificial intelligence and biology. It was founded in 2021, is based in Palo Alto, and partners with Stanford University, UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco. Its own pitch is that its scientists get long-term funding and industry-scale resources while staying free to chase high-risk, long-horizon questions.
