UK DRI Research Associate - INTERNAL ONLY

Dementia is one of the greatest health challenge of our century. 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 850 staff investigating the spectrum of neurodegenerative disorders causing dementia, with laboratory-based research groups located at University College London, the University of Cambridge, Cardiff University, Edinburgh University, Imperial College London, and King’s College London. 

Researchers at the UK DRI at King’s use innovative approaches to explore the biological mechanisms involved in neurodegenerative diseases. Their goal is to defeat dementia by uncovering vital new knowledge that will lead to the design of smarter diagnostics and effective treatments. The team aim to understand the fundamental biological processes involved in dementia at a molecular level – and to use that knowledge to design new ways to diagnose and treat disease more precisely.  

Dr Sarah Marzi https://ukdri.ac.uk/team/sarah-marzi ) is seeking to appoint a Research Associate, her research programme aims to determine the role of epigenetic regulation in neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s disease, using state of the art epigenetic and genomic techniques in cell populations and at the single cell level. Specifically, we seek to identify an epigenetic link between non-coding genetic and environmental risk in dementia and identify mechanisms by which these risk factors make cells susceptible to neurodegeneration.  

The successful candidate should have substantial experience in the analysis of epigenetic and transcriptomic data, particularly chromatin profiling to lead on research identifying disease-linked epigenetic regulation in post-mortem brain samples. Experience with bioinformatic analyses more generally and use of a high-performance computing cluster will be essential. You will be a dynamic, creative, and motivated scientist interested in pursuing questions deeply. With strong molecular biology knowledge and experience with genomic/epigenomic approaches, you will use a range of methods for brain tissue analyses including next generation RNA sequencing, ChIP sequencing and CUT&Tag/TIP-seq (or equivalent) and ATAC sequencing methods. Reproducibility is of particular importance to the Marzi lab, and experience with version control, github, and/or interactive/annotated reporting with a markup language will be a plus.

The Marzi Lab is highly collaborative. You will join a multidisciplinary team on the Denmark Hill Campus with a leading role in:

• Designing and performing experiments
• Developing technical advances
• Performing data analysis
• Presenting the results
• Writing up manuscripts to be submitted to peer-review journals

Post holders will be given opportunities to work closely with a broad range of other scientists across the UK DRI and in external universities. It is recognised that new ideas always are needed in the field and post holders will be given opportunities to explore their own and other novel ideas, train in new methods and develop new competencies. King’s College also encourages continued professional development of its staff through both internal and external educational courses covering skills such as project, financial or time management and communication, as well as scientific topics.

The post holder will be supported to attend scientific meetings to present work, subject to progress and budgets.  plasmid and vector constructs and quantify the effects on target gene expression. For in vivo they will sacrifice rodents and harvest and prepare tissues for histological sectioning, staining, imaging, and quantitative analyses. All experiments will be undertaken at a very high standard and all data treated with complete confidentiality. 

This post will be offered on a full-time, fixed term contract until 31 December 2024.

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

1.      Hold a PhD in Molecular Biology, Neuroscienceor Bioinformatics, or a closely related discipline, or equivalent research, industrial or commercial experience. 

2.      Practical experience within a research environment and publication in relevant and refereed journals or preprints 

3.      Knowledge of next-generation genomic approaches, specifically those pertaining to chromatin biology. 

4.      Practical experience in bioinformatic analyses, including pre-processing, quality control and differential analysis of gene expression and chromatin data. 

5.      Experience working with version control and documentation software, including git and Markdown. 

6.      Experience with statistical genetics approaches for functional genomics, including linkage disequilibrium score regression, cell type deconvolution and gene co-expression network analysis.

7.      Excellent written communication skills and the ability to write clearly and succinctly for publication. 

8.      Willingness to work as part of a team and to be open-minded and cooperative. 

Desirable criteria

1,        Knowledge of neurodegenerative diseases

2.        Familiarity with neuroanatomy and/or immunology

Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs 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.

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 take a look at our ‘How we Recruit ’ pages.

Interviews are planned for Mid-May 2024 (tbc)

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.

This post is subject to an Occupational Health clearance.