Research Assistant/Associate in Childhood Cancer Genomics

Salary:

Research Assistant £31,396 - £32,982 per annum

Research Associate £33,966 - £36,024 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits . We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 11 April 2024

The Role

We seek an enthusiastic and ambitious Researcher to join our team in the Translational and Clinical Research Institute to work on a unique and exciting project.  

Current combination therapies (i.e. surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy) ensure that ~80% of children diagnosed with a brain tumour will survive their disease. Nevertheless, successful treatment means a risk of lifelong detrimental therapy-related late-effects; a major determining factor being cranial irradiation of the developing brain. We have developed a model of radiotherapeutic injury in juvenile mice which mirrors treatment (dosing/scheduling, developmental stage) of children and recapitulates the associated late-effect profile, including significant deficits in neurocognition.

This project will build upon this unique model. You will help create and analyse a single-cell (scRNA-seq) transcriptional atlas detailing, in high resolution, the effect of radiotherapeutic injury upon individual brain cells in the juvenile mouse brain. Analysis will focus upon defining how cell types, lineages and transcriptional states are affected by cranial irradiation. This atlas will bring great added value to our model by providing a biological “ground-truth”, allowing us to inform and benchmark future therapeutic interventions designed to mitigate radiotherapeutic injury or therapy- associated developmental cognitive deficits.

This is an opportunity to address a critical clinical problem affecting the lives of survivors of childhood cancer. It is also an opportunity to develop some key analytical and bioinformatic skills in a cutting-edge technology with strong potential for translation and high-impact publication. You will work as part of the multi-disciplinary Paediatric Brain Tumour Group at the Wolfson Childhood Cancer Research Centre within the Newcastle University Centre for Cancer, the focus of research excellence in translational cancer research at Newcastle with an annual research income of ~£10m and >400 researchers.

You will hold a PhD in relevant area (required for appointment at Associate level) or be close to submission of a PhD or Masters degree in relevant subject (for appointment at Assistant level)  Experience of research including bioinformatic analysis including coding/scripting languages such as R and/or Python, preferably in the area of cancer research, single cell genomics and/or neuro-development  experience to collate and securely manage large bioinformatic datasets is essential.

This post is a full time position, fixed term until 31st May 2026. 

For informal enquiries contact: Daniel Williamson [email protected] or Debbie Hicks [email protected]

Find out more about our research here:

https://www.ncl.ac.uk/cancer/our-research/paediatric-oncology-and-haematology/brain-tumour-research/

https://www.ncl.ac.uk/cancer/our-research/paediatric-oncology-and-haematology/

Find out more about the Faculty of Medical Sciences and research institutes here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/ and https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/research/institutes/

Key Accountabilities

• Although working under the general guidance of an academic or Principal Investigator, you will contribute ideas, including enhancements to the technical or methodological aspects of their studies, thus providing substantial 'added value' 
• Develop and carry out the specified project using appropriate techniques and equipment as outlined in the personal requirements 
• Determine appropriate methodologies for research, with advice and support where required
• Contribute to grant applications submitted by others and in time develop own research objectives and proposals for funding 
• Begin to write, with appropriate support, proposals for individual research funding or, where funders do not permit this, contribute to the writing of collective bids
• Assess research findings for the need/scope for further investigations
• Contribute to the writing up of their research for publication and dissemination, either through seminar and conference presentations or through publications
• Present research findings, either at conferences or through publications in reputable outlets appropriate to the discipline
• May be involved in the supervision, with guidance, of final year undergraduate research projects and in providing support to postgraduate research students or Research Assistants 
• Will need to work with the support staff and, on occasions, with undergraduate and postgraduate students, and interact intellectually with other academic members of the Institute.
• May contribute to events celebrating the public engagement of science/social sciences/humanities
• Develop an awareness of University structures, policies and procedures and relevant issues in the higher education, research, social and political environment
• Take responsibility (with appropriate support from NUIT) for safe and secure data storage of large bioinformatic datasets and ultimately deposition in online repositories prior to publication
• Create and maintain useable and shareable version-controlled code and jupyter notebooks in shared repositories to support the project, allow team working and reproducibility

The Person 

Knowledge, Skills and Experience 

• Ability to work well as part of a team and rapidly acquire new skills
• Detailed subject knowledge (PI to describe subject knowledge required) in the area of research 
• Likelihood of advanced skills directly related to the research projects 
• High level of analytical and problem-solving capability 
• Ability to communicate complex information with clarity and to encourage the commitment of others 
• Experience of research with clear transferable skills and some experience or awareness of the research environment 
• Presentations at conferences and/or high-quality publications
• Skills and experience in bioinformatic analysis with relevance to the project goals
• Ability and/or experience to handle and securely manage large bioinformatic datasets
• Demonstrable understanding of transcriptional analysis with relevance to the project goals
• Skills and experience using coding/scripting languages relevant to the project goals i.e. R, Python

Desirable

• Specific experience/expertise in single-cell genomics analysis, preferably scRNA-seq
• Some lab skills/experience in addition to bioinformatics expertise
• Experience of cancer research and/or single cell genomics and/or neurodevelopmental research

Attributes and Behaviour

• Excellent record keeping and data/code management
• Proactive in seeking out learning, adopting or creating new approaches and methodologies
• Collaborative mindset with a positive attitude towards teamwork
• Respectful and helpful in contributions to the research culture with the team and institute

Desirable

• Comfortable with and adept at cross-disciplinary working
• Contributes creatively to the projects and ideas within the wider group

Qualifications

• A PhD in relevant area (required for appointment at Associate level)
• Masters degree in relevant subject or close to submission of a PhD (for appointment at Assistant level)

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are aDisability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 26875