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PhD Candidates

Tang lab’s research aims at developing novel strategies to engineer immunity-disease interactions, an emerging field called ‘immunoengineering’, through chemical, metabolic, and mechanical means in order to treat cancer safely and effectively with immunotherapies. We are actively looking to recruit PhD students who are interested in this new field and would like to work in a highly interdisciplinary environment.

Highly motivated and talented students (bachelor or master) with excellent academic achievements in a major field of Immunology, Cancer Biology, Bioengineering, or a closely related discipline, are encouraged to apply for EPFL doctoral programs (EDBB or EDMS or EDMX, see http://phd.epfl.ch/programs for details).

Candidates with only a four-year Bachelor Degree are also considered (depending on the undergraduate institution and study/research performance there).

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Postdoctoral Positions

NCCR Postdoctoral Position in Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy (October 2026)

We will begin reviewing applications immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Priority will be given to applications received before 31st October 2026.

A full-time postdoctoral position is available starting January 2027 in the Tang Lab (tang-lab.epfl.ch) at EPFL and the Francesco Ceppi Group (Ceppi)  at Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), within the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research NCCR Children & Cancer (WP4: Developing immune-based approaches for childhood cancers).

The successful candidate will join a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary project involving the Tang, Ceppi, and other groups of the NCCR project, with the overarching goal of developing new strategies to overcome CD19 CAR-T cell therapy failure in pediatric leukemia.

The project is funded for four years and will focus on understanding and overcoming mechanisms of resistance and relapse following CAR-T cell therapy.

Project Overview and NCCR Children & Cancer

The project will investigate whether CAR-T cells with cross-type immune coordination can enhance therapeutic efficacy and prevent leukemia relapse. The underlying mechanisms responsible for this potential improvement will be systematically investigated.

In parallel, the project will aim to identify novel therapeutic targets and antigen combinations for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), with the ultimate goal of developing next-generation dual- or multi-antigen CAR-T cell therapies.

The NCCR Children & Cancer establishes a national Swiss framework addressing the unique challenges of childhood cancer by bringing together cutting-edge expertise spanning fundamental research, clinical translation, data science, artificial intelligence, communication science, and patient and nursing perspectives.

The consortium brings together leading Swiss researchers and clinicians working on pediatric leukemia, brain tumors, neuroblastoma, sarcomas, functional oncogenomics, and computational approaches to cancer research.

The Postdoctoral Position

The postdoctoral researcher will be co-supervised by Prof. Li Tang (EPFL) and Dr. Francesco Ceppi (CHUV) and will work at the interface between immunoengineering, cancer biology, and pediatric oncology.

The main objectives of the project will include:

• Engineering CAR-T cells with synergistic type 1 and type 2 immune functions and evaluating their therapeutic activity.
• Investigating the potential of engineered CAR-T cells to prevent resistance and relapse of leukemia.
• Assessing CAR-T cell efficacy and mechanisms of action in mouse models.
• Performing the preclinical evaluation of human CAR-T cells using patient-derived models.
• Systematically identifying novel therapeutic targets and antigen combinations for pediatric ALL.
• Developing and evaluating dual- and multi-antigen CAR-T cell strategies.
• Investigating how metabolic modulation of immune cells can influence CAR-T cell function and therapeutic efficacy.
• Establishing close collaborations with clinicians at CHUV to facilitate the translation of new immunotherapeutic approaches toward clinical application.

The candidate will have the opportunity to work in a highly interdisciplinary environment, combining cell engineering, cancer immunology, molecular biology, functional genomics, preclinical models, and translational pediatric oncology.

The position offers the opportunity to contribute to an ambitious, clinically oriented research program addressing major challenges in CAR-T cell therapy for childhood leukemia, while working closely with both researchers and clinicians.

The working language is English.

The salary and benefits are internationally competitive for postdoctoral researchers at EPFL and CHUV.

Requirements:

• Being willing to work in a highly interdisciplinary environment.
• Having track-record in publishing peer-reviewed journal articles as the first author in tier 1 journals
• Being self-motivated.
• Having good communication skills (writing and speaking in English).

Responsibilities:

• Take the lead of the project and prepare regular reports
• Publish research results in tier 1 journals
• Assist PI in grant writing
• Present data at conferences and lab meetings
• Help PI on leading the organization and maintenance of the lab
• Train junior lab members

How to apply

We will begin reviewing applications immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Priority will be given to applications received by 31^st October 2026. You may find more details here. 

Step 1: Interested postdoc candidates please apply by filling the Google form using the link (application will not be considered if a google from is not submitted):

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSea1-rYi9_VIeWPVTE9iUnBww8ZBzxDHHssmvdgfW82lwfZig/viewform

Step 2: After filling the Google form, please send an email (Subject: Application for a NCCR Postdoctoral Position-[Your name]) attaching your curriculum vitae, a cover letter, and the names of three referees to:

Dr. Francesco Ceppi at [email protected]

Prof. Li Tang at [email protected]