Arthritis, Blood and Bone: studying ‘rogue’ immune clones in blood, bone marrow and joints of patients with arthritis – and pre-clinical testing of novel biologics.
Job No:
G27
Location:
Darlinghurst, Sydney
Supervisor: Dr Etienne Masle-Farquhar
Background:
1 in 8 people suffer from arthritis, including 1 in 10, 30, 100 or 1,000 people living with osteoarthritis, gout, rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis. Unfortunately, treatments are non-specific, prescribed by “best-guess” and typically ineffective – in large part because the specific cellular and molecular drivers of arthritis remain unknown. The consequence is numerous treatments with side-effects, and life-long, hugely debilitating diseases of unpredictable flares, joint inflammation and irreversible damage, chronic disability, mental health deterioration and strikingly increased risk of cardiovascular disease, for over 800 million people living with arthritis.
The below projects leverage unique clinical collaborations, a growing biobank, immunogenomics methods. They aim to address major unmet needs of people living with arthritis.
Two Projects Available :
Both projects leverage our biobank resource, which is unique within Australia: a growing repository of blood, saliva, bone marrow, synovial fluid, synovium and other inflamed tissues from hundreds of individuals with arthritis – collected during diverse hospital and surgery procedures – and paired with extensive clinical metadata assessing serology, inflammation, joint radiographic damage, pain and stiffness assessments.
Project #1: using novel immunogenomics and single-cell methods to identify and track aberrant (“rogue”) immune clones in blood versus affected tissues of patients with Psoriatic and Rheumatoid arthritis.
Project #2: pre-clinical testing in arthritis mouse models of new drug therapies, which we are designing, producing and pre-clinically validating in collaboration with the Garvan Biologics Platform.
If you have specific interests in the intersection of arthritis with hematological or cardiovascular diseases, or large-scale single-cell genetics analyses of arthritis cohorts, alternate projects are available with Dr Masle-Farquhar.
Benefits:
- Unique samples: access to a unique biobank in Australia, and the opportunity to work with precious tissues from people with arthritis.
- Hospital collaborations: close collaborations with leading clinicians (heads of rheumatology, orthopedics, hematology and allied health departments), and contribution to development of novel biologics.
- Funding security: these projects are funded by the NHMRC, NSW OHMR, SVCRF, Exceptional Responders Program and Arthritis Australia.
- Technologies: single-cell transcriptome, epigenome, and genome analyses of pathogenic immune cells (eg 10X Chromium, Smartseq2, Long Read Sequencing and hybrid captures), and high-parameter spectral flow cytometry and microscopy on inflamed tissues in humans and mice.
About you:
- You’re passionate about understanding diseases and you actively want to use your science to improve the lives of people living with inflammatory diseases.
- You have a BSc (Hons), MSc or equivalent degree.
- Knowledge of immunology, genetics, bioinformatics is desirable but not essential.
Eligibility:
Domestic (Australia and NZ citizens) and International applicants.
How to apply:
Do not wait for the closing date listed on the website. Interested applicants should apply immediately, as applications will be reviewed as soon as they are received, and shortlisted candidates contacted immediately.
If you are interested, please send your (1) CV, (2) Academic transcripts and (3) reasons for applying, by email to Dr Etienne Masle-Farquhar e.masle-farquhar@garvan.org.au
or click on Apply Now
Additional information:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/etienne-masle-farquhar-a00705189/
https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2025/02/28-million-from-nhmrc-to-advance-medical-research