Research Associate in Life Sciences

Job summary

We seek a Research Associate with expertise in plant-microbe interactions, microbial ecology, and omics/sequencing to investigate how microbes can be used to improve the growth of crops in controlled environments. The project will focus on the development of probiotics for lettuce grown under hydroponic conditions. Intensive soil-less agriculture has the potential to revolutionise agricultural production of high-value crops. Microbes growing...

Job listing information

• Reference NAT01495
• Date posted 4 August 2023
• Closing date 15 September 2023

Key information about the role

• Location Silwood Park Campus - On site only

• Position type Full time, fixed term
• Salary £45,593 – £53,630 plus benefits

• Department Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park)
• Category Researcher / Non Clinical Researcher

Job description

Job summary

We seek a Research Associate with expertise in plant-microbe interactions, microbial ecology, and omics/sequencing to investigate how microbes can be used to improve the growth of crops in controlled environments.

The project will focus on the development of probiotics for lettuce grown under hydroponic conditions. Intensive soil-less agriculture has the potential to revolutionise agricultural production of high-value crops. Microbes growing in hydroponics rigs can both help and hinder crop production, but the role of microbes within these systems remains understudied. You will lead a series of experiments that manipulate and track the microbial communities associated with lettuce and seek to identify microbes that confer protection to plant pathogens and are beneficial for lettuce growth.

The primary role will be in planning and conducting the experiments, so experience working with microbes and plants would be essential. Part of the project will also include applying omics technologies to the microbial communities and the lettuce (meta-barcoding, transcriptomics).

The project is funded by Innovate UK and is a collaboration lead by ConcertBio (www.concert.bio), a young biotechnology company focused on creating bespoke microbial communities for a wide array of applications. There are therefore excellent opportunities for real-world impact of the research, as well as a first-hand insight into linkages between academia and the biotech industry.

Duties and responsibilities

You will be responsible for assisting with the setup of a new hydroponics rig, planning and conducting the experiments, and analysing and preparing the results for publication. You would also be responsible for coordination with the team at ConcertBio.

Essential requirements

• Hold, or be near completion of, a PhD in plant-microbe interactions or related field or a closely related discipline, or equivalent research, industrial or commercial experience

• Broad interest in plant-microbe interactions

• Good laboratory skills, especially for working with microbial cultures and plants.

• Knowledge of how to analyse and interpret omics datasets. Knowledge of 16S rRNA and transcriptomics pipelines would be particularly beneficial.

• Good communication skills, both in terms of written skills and for presentation of the work

Further information

The post is funded by Innovate UK.

The contract is full-time, fixed term for 18 months, based at the Silwood Park Campus of Imperial College London www.imperial.ac.uk/silwood-park/

Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as a Research Assistant.

Please contact Prof Thomas Bell thomas.bell@imperial.ac.uk with any questions about the post.

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/

Documents

• Job Description Research Associate.pdf