Research Technician in Circadian Medicine | UK DRI

Updated: almost 2 years ago
Location: Hammersmith, ENGLAND
Job Type: FullTime
Deadline: 28 Jun 2022

Job description
Job summary

Opportunities to join in the search for future treatments for dementia!

To date there is no way to prevent it or even slow its progression, and there is an urgent need to fill the knowledge gap in our basic understanding of the diseases that cause it.

The UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) is the biggest UK initiative driving forward research to fill this gap.

We are a globally leading multidisciplinary research institute of 700 staff investigating the spectrum of neurodegenerative disorders causing dementia, with laboratory-based research groups located at Imperial College London , University College London, the University of Cambridge, Cardiff University, Edinburgh University, and King’s College London.

We have an exciting role for an experienced technician to provide technical support and management on projects related to circadian disruption in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease in Dr Marco Brancaccio’s group (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/dementia-research-institute/research-programmes/mechanisms-of-circadian-dysfunction-in-alzheimers-disease/), part of the UK DRI Centre at Imperial.

Technicians in the UK DRI at Imperial enjoy excellent career development opportunities including the opportunity to participate in the Technicians’ Network at Imperial and more widely with technologists across the UK DRI. 


Duties and responsibilities

Building on a range of behavioural, cellular and molecular biology procedures in animal models of circadian disruption in AD, you will undertake:

  • Behavioural recording of sleep-wake cycles/ cognitive testing in environmentally controlled light-tight circadian cabinets
  • Usage of viral vectors to manipulate circadian function of astrocytes via stereotaxic surgical procedures in vivo, and ex vivo, by transduction of organotypic brain slices
  • Monitoring of circadian activities in astrocytes by bioluminescence/fluorescence multiplexed live imaging

Essential requirements

  • A good degree level qualification in a science subject

  • Experience of laboratory-based animal research

  • Methodical approach to work, good time management and record keeping

  • Excellent communication skills and a willingness to learn


Further information

Full details of the role can be found in the attached job description.

The role is offered full time, initially for a period of 6 months. 

You will benefit from an active research (and social) environment in the Department of Brain Sciences, in the Burlington Danes Building on Hammersmith Campus with additional research labs in the Sir Michael Uren Hub, on the nearby White City Campus.

For more information about the UK DRI at Imperial, please visit: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/dementia-research-institute

The UK Dementia Research Institute: https://ukdri.ac.uk/

The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA),which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation/

The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes which are ultimately aimed towards finding new treatments and making scientific and medical advances, and where there are no satisfactory or reasonably practical alternatives to their use. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level.http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-integrity/animal-research

We are committed to equality of opportunity, to eliminating discrimination and to creating an inclusive working environment for all. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, gender identity, sex, or sexual orientation. We are an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Disability Confident Leader and a Stonewall Diversity Champion.


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