Doctorat en Neuroimmunologie (H/F) - Institut Toulousain des maladies infectieuses et inflammatoires (INFINITY)

Three-year PhD contract at the Toulouse Institute for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases (INFINITY). The central nervous system was long considered immunologically privileged, yet active mechanisms continuously regulate immune-cell infiltration into the brain and immune function within it. T-cell activity is tuned by signalling pathways controlling activation, differentiation and tissue adaptation, which are well described in cancer and infection but poorly understood in healthy tissue, particularly the CNS.

Building on the team’s preliminary data, the project tests the hypothesis that regulation of T-cell receptor (TCR) signalling orchestrates both T-cell entry into the CNS and their functional programming, shaping the brain’s immune landscape at steady state. The thesis will dissect the molecular and cellular mechanisms controlling these processes and determine how their dysregulation affects immune homeostasis, susceptibility to neuroinflammatory disease and cognitive function, combining immunology and systems-biology approaches including spectral flow cytometry and omics analyses.

Start date 1 December 2026; minimum monthly salary €2,300.