Research Associate in Heart and Lung

We are looking for a Research Associate to assist in carrying out experiments investigating mechanisms of inflammation and remodelling in chronic lung diseases, funded by the Wellcome Trust as part of a Senior Fellowship awarded to Dr Snelgrove. You will be part of Dr Snelgrove’s group within the Inflammation, Development & Repair Section. The work will involve a variety of in vivo and in vitro techniques to evaluate inflammation and airway...

Job listing information

• Reference MED01910
• Date posted 9 July 2020
• Closing date 9 August 2020

Key information about the role

• Location South Kensington Campus (map)
• Position type Full time, fixed term
• Salary £40,215 – £47,579 plus benefits
• Department National Heart & Lung Institute
• Category Researcher / Non Clinical Researcher

Job description

Job summary

We are looking for a Research Associate to assist in carrying out experiments investigating mechanisms of inflammation and remodelling in chronic lung diseases, funded by the Wellcome Trust as part of a Senior Fellowship awarded to Dr Snelgrove.

You will be part of Dr Snelgrove’s group within the Inflammation, Development & Repair Section. The work will involve a variety of in vivo and in vitro techniques to evaluate inflammation and airway remodeling processes that are cardinal features of chronic lung diseases - utilising both complex mouse mutant models as well as in vitro cell culture systems using cells isolated from patients.

You will use systems well established in the group but will have the freedom to develop novel systems to investigate our hypothesis. Once appointed, you will be involved in developing and driving the project as well as writing up work for presentation and publication.

Duties and responsibilities

• To conduct murine models of chronic lung disease pathology (allergic airways disease and emphysema) - performing immunisations, assessment of lung function, sampling of the airways and tissue processing.

• To extract and culture leukocytes and stromal cells from mice and patients with chronic lung disease pathologies.

• To investigate phenotypic and molecular characteristics of pulmonary cells in health and disease by flow cytometry and transcriptomic analysis.

• To conduct cytokine assays, histological analysis, immunocytochemistry, RNA extraction and real time PCR.

• To maintain highly organised and accurate record of experimental work.

• To conduct data analysis, ensuring the validity and reliability of data at all times.

Essential requirements

You will have a PhD degree in Biological Sciences, ideally with a high immunology content, or equivalent industrial or commercial experience. You will also need:

• Previous experience working in a research laboratory.
• In depth knowledge of inflammation biology and immunology.
• Experience of murine models of (preferably respiratory) disease, including use of complex transgenic mice.
• Experience or working with primary human and murine cells (including neutrophils, macrophages, innate lymphoid cells, bronchial epithelial cells and fibroblasts).
• Experience with multi-parameter flow cytometry and cell sorting.

The ability to work independently and as part of a team, excellent communication, organisational and problem-solving skills are essential. You will be technically proficient at a high level to ensure up to date support for research.

Further information

This role is full-time and fixed-term for 30 months.

Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as a Research Assistant within the salary range £35,477 - £38,566 per annum.

Should you require any further details on the role please contact: Robert.snelgrove@imperial.ac.uk

For technical issues when applying online please email recruitment@imperial.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 where their use is shown to be necessary for developing new treatments and making medical advances. 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/