Research Specialist in Antiviral Drug Discovery Part-time

Research Specialist in Antiviral Drug Discovery

Interested in viruses and antiviral drug discovery? If your expertise lies in molecular biology, biochemistry, or fundamental virology, we encourage you to apply. Join our newly established interdisciplinary group as a research specialist at Karolinska Institutet and help us discover novel antivirals targeting emerging infectious diseases!

Your Mission

As a research specialist, you will join our ambitious team, a leading group in computational drug discovery with a focus on infectious diseases. The successful candidate will establish and optimize assays suitable for high-throughput experimentation, design and execute screening campaigns, and rigorously analyze, interpret, and communicate the results. You will collaborate closely with dedicated scientists across leading research infrastructures that support our work and help train junior researchers in the lab. As part of the team, you will help implement and validate technologies developed in the lab. If you are motivated to apply your skillset to the development of urgently needed antiviral therapies, we strongly encourage you to apply.

Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible for employment as a Research Specialist, in addition to holding a Degree of Doctor, PhD, or having a foreign degree deemed equivalent to a Swedish doctoral degree, the applicant must have demonstrated research expertise as well as have documented postdoctoral research experience. In addition to this if you fulfil at least a couple of the following criteria, you are encouraged to apply. In order of decreasing importance, you should:

• Have a PhD in some area of antiviral research with strong experimental focus.
• Have expert knowledge in biochemical and cellular assay development.
• Have expert knowledge in evaluating small molecule inhibitors.
• Have extensive experience with BSL3 experimentation.

Assessment Criteria

It is particularly meritorious that the applicant has:

• expertise in working with a range of viruses, including the ability to design, establish, and execute robust experimental assays and infection models
• expertise in working with small molecules within drug discovery campaigns, including characterization at both the protein (biochemical/biophysical) and cellular levels
• experience working with virus-infected cells, with proven capacity to operate safely in a BSL3 environment
• a strong track record of scientific contributions, as evidenced by first-author publications

It is meritorious that the applicant has:

• gained research experience outside their PhD advisor's laboratory, demonstrating independence and exposure to diverse research environments
• successfully secured competitive research funding, demonstrating initiative and the ability to develop and articulate research proposals

What Do We Offer?

A creative and inspiring environment with wide-ranging expertise and interests. Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. Here, we conduct successful medical research and hold the largest range of medical education in Sweden. At KI, you get to meet researchers working with a wide range of specialisms and methods, giving you ample opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience with the various scientific fields within medicine and health. It is the crossover collaborations, which have pushed KI to where it is today, at the forefront of global research. Several of the people you meet in healthcare are educated at KI. A close relationship with the health care providers is important for creating groundbreaking top quality education and research. Karolinska Institutet is also a state university, which entitles you to several benefits through our collective agreement.

The Luttens lab is part of the Genome Biology research division at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at Karolinska Institutet (KI) and is also affiliated with SciLifeLab (Science for Life Laboratory) through the SciLifeLab and Wallenberg National Program for Data-Driven Life Science (DDLS). The lab is expanding into a multidisciplinary team comprising chemists, biologists, and data scientists, and has access to strong research infrastructure at both the departmental and institutional levels. The position offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to a project with clear societal relevance and strong prospects for career development both within and beyond academia.

Location: SciLifeLab, Solna

Application

We prefer that your application is written in English, but you can also apply in Swedish. An application must contain the following documents: PhD certificate, résumé, qualifications and description of planned research, presented in accordance with Karolinska Institutet's qualifications portfolio. Welcome to apply at latest 17 May 2026. The application must be submitted through the Varbi recruitment system.