Research Associate in Vascular Biology

Job id: 087546. Salary: £43,205 - £45,521per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.

Posted: 11 April 2024. Closing date: 12 May 2024.

Business unit: Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine. Department: SCMMS Southbank.

Contact details:Professor Luigi Gnudi. [email protected]

Location: Waterloo Campus. Category: Research.

The School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences (SCMMS) provides an outstanding multi-disciplinary environment for the pursuit of cutting-edge cardiovascular and metabolic research. We study the fundamental molecular, cellular, and physiological processes that underly normal and abnormal cardiovascular and metabolic function and drive the translation of this strong basic science into advances in clinical practice.

Our research focuses on four main Themes (Cardiac, Vascular, Cardiometabolic, Diabetes & Obesity), with two cross-cutting Themes (Basic and Clinical). The School is led by Professor Mauro Giacca and comprises over 65 clinical and non-clinical academic groups, hosting 400 personnel and 110 PhD students. Our community of world-renowned researchers and educators have access to state-of-the art core facilities and expertise, including facilities for high-throughput screening and high content imaging, multimodality in vivo imaging, proteomics, integrative physiology, and viral & non-viral vector production.

The School activities are carried out at three main locations: James Black Centre in Denmark Hill, St Thomas’s Hospital and Franklin-Wilkins Building in South Bank and the Hodgkin Building and New Hunt House/Randal Centre in Guy’s Campus.

As part of King’s Health Partners, we have an excellent environment for basic-clinical interaction and a strong focus on mentoring and career development. The School hosts the British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence at King's, which brings together a unique range of internationally recognised scientists and clinicians from across the School and King’s College London.

This is an exciting opportunity to join Professor Gnudi’s team in the Vascular Biology & Inflammation section of Southbank, School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences at King’s College London.

To conduct a period of original research leading to publications and future grant application working with Prof Luigi Gnudi - School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences.

Prof Gnudi is an internationally recognised clinical scientist who has described novel important role of vascular growth factors (angiopoietins) in the renal vasculature.

This project will look at kidney disease as an important vascular complication of diabetes and at a novel identified molecule that modulates the angiopoietin signalling by acting on Tie-2/Tie-1 receptor.

We will test whether Tie1 inducible deletion, specifically in endothelial cells influences healthy and diabetic kidneys and whether Tie-1 can be modulated as a target for treatment of the diabetic vasculature in the kidney.

This work will be conducted using state of the art technologies, in a vibrant environment of basic scientist, physiologist and clinicians, an ideal setting for translation of lab-based observations to the clinical setting.

This is a full-time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered a fix-term contract for 19 months.

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Full details of the role and the skills and experience required, can be found in the attached job description which provided on the next page.

* Please note that this is a PhD/MD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs/MD will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6.

This post is subject to Occupational Health clearances.

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community. 

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers review your application, please look at our ‘How we Recruit ’ pages.

Interviews are due to be held in June 2024.

This role does meet the requirements of the Home Office and therefore we are able to offer sponsorship for candidates who require the right to work in the UK.