Location

SAINT LOUIS, MO 63110

Position Summary

Postdoctoral Fellow — Viral Transmission & Vaccine Science
Jacco Boon Lab · WashU in St. Louis

Want your research to help decide how the next pandemic is stopped?
The Boon Lab at WashU Medicine is hiring an enthusiastic Postdoctoral Fellow to join our team studying influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission in mouse and hamster models. This is a chance to work at the frontier of infectious disease research — using barcoded viruses to track exactly how pathogens spread within and between hosts, and to measure how novel vaccines and environmental factors change the outcome.

You won't just run experiments. You'll help answer questions that matter for global public health: How do vaccines and immune responses blunt transmission and disease severity? How do viruses move and disseminate between hosts? Your data will directly shape the design of next-generation countermeasures.

About the Boon Lab
The Boon Lab studies viral transmission, immune responses, and disease mechanisms while developing diagnostic tools, treatments, and preventive strategies against important human pathogens — including influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and tick-borne viruses such as Bourbon and Heartland virus. The team combines molecular tools, next-generation sequencing, mRNA vaccines, and animal models, and pioneers the use of barcoded viruses to measure and track how viruses replicate, disseminate, and transmit. By pairing cutting-edge technology with collaborations across global health partners, the lab works to unlock the mechanisms driving infection outcomes and to translate that understanding into real-world protection.

Where You'll Work
The lab is housed in the John T. Milliken Department of Medicine at WashU in St. Louis, MO, on a floor shared with several other laboratories studying virus–host interactions — so collaboration and great science are right outside your door. We also have active, ongoing collaborations with labs across the University, including Molecular Microbiology and Pathology & Immunology. It's a rich, connected environment built for scientists who want to grow.

Why This Role

• Work with a novel barcoded virus platform few labs in the world can offer.
• Build expertise across virology, immunology, and bioinformatics.
• Join a collaborative, cross-departmental research community at a top-tier medical school.
• Do science with a clear line of sight to real public health impact.

Job Description

Primary Duties & Responsibilities:

Information on being a postdoc at WashU in St. Louis can be found at https://postdoc.wustl.edu/prospective-postdocs-2/.