Clinical Research Fellow - Metabolism & Systems Research - 98528 - Clinical

Position Details 

Institute of Metabolism and Systems Reseach, College of Medical and Dental Sciences

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK 

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £34,563 to £59,845.  

Clinical Post 

Full Time / Fixed Term Contract for 12 months 

Closing date:  16 November 2021

Job Summary

To contribute to the achievement of the Institute research strategy by undertaking specified research activities within an established research programme, within the Metabolic Neurology group, led by Professor Alex Sinclair, Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research.

Specifically to support the mTBI Predict study, a multiyear research program funded by the Ministry of Defence.

This is a 1 year post initially that could progress to further years.

mTBI Predict

There are 1.4 million hospital visits annually in England and Wales due to head injury, and of these around 200,000 patients are admitted to hospital [1]. Of these patients, 85% will be classified as mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), with 10% moderate and 5% severe [1]. Whilst many individuals with mTBI recover, a significant proportion will have significantly disabling long term sequelae. The most common and highly disabling consequence of mTBI is post-traumatic headache (58% affected at 1 year) [2]. Cognitive dysfunction, psychiatric morbidity including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and intrusive dizziness are also common sequalae which contribute to poor quality of life and impair ability to return to work. Consequently mTBI, compared to moderate and severe TBI, leads to disproportionate morbidity and healthcare utilisation [3].

There is a lack of objective measures to quantify injury following mTBI. Additionally, measures to accurately predict those who will develop long term complications of mTBI are not established. There is therefore a pressing need to develop accurate, reproducible biomarkers of mTBI that predict long term complications. These biomarkers will enable a personalised medicine approach to target early intervention to those most in need but also identify those with a good prognosis who can return rapidly to activities of daily living.

The overarching aim of this program is to identify accurate, reproducible biomarkers in mTBI that will predict the most common and disabling consequences of mTBI: primarily persistent post-traumatic headache, as well as cognitive dysfunction, depression, PTSD, dizziness and return to work. This will be achieved through a harmonised program of detailed clinical phenotyping of acute mTBI patients coupled with state-of-the-art multimodal biomarker evaluation (brain imaging, fluid biomarkers, steroid hormones, visual, vestibular, cerebral physiology, and EEG).

Main Responsibilities

•    To co-ordinate and set up the clinical workstreams
•    To establish protocols for the clinical workstreams
•    To set up Trial laboratory manuals
•    Co-ordinate with the data storage work stream
•    Develop expertise to design, coordinate and deliver clinical aspects of the trial including, headache, cerebral physiology (CO2- and exercise-vasoreactivity, cerebral autoregulation, neurovascular coupling with NIRS, EEG, and doppler), cognition, mental health and visual function.
•    Conduct clinical trial visit 
•    To liaise with trial sites regarding clinical, neuroimaging and biological data. 
•    To contribute to writing bids for research grants.
•    To disseminate research findings using appropriate and effective media such as publication, research seminars etc
•    To provide guidance to other staff and students on own specialist area.
•    To contribute to the production of research reports and publications.
•    To prepare reports for Steering groups and other bodies.
•    Promote equality and values diversity acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.

Person Specification

•    First degree in area of specialism and planning to undergoing PHD/ MD / DPhil
•    Possesses sufficient breadth and depth of specialist knowledge in the discipline and or research methods and techniques to work within established research programmes.
•    Understanding and experience of clinical research methods 
•    Registered with the GMC with a License to Practice. 
•    Ideally Completion of MRCP or equivalent
•    Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day to day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly.

Further particulars can be found here: http://www.download.bham.ac.uk/vacancies/jd/MDSFPs.pdf

Informal enquiries can be made to Professor Alex Sinclair ([email protected])

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment 

We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working