Research Fellow

About us

The UCL Cancer Institute is a world-leading centre for cancer research at University College London, bringing together over 400 scientists and 150 PhD students dedicated to advancing the understanding and treatment of cancer. As part of the CRUK City of London Centre, the Institute collaborates with leading research organisations including Barts, King's College London, and the Francis Crick Institute to drive innovation in cancer research.

The Treatment Resistance Team, led by Prof Gerhardt Attard, focuses on identifying and overcoming treatment resistance in prostate cancer. The group has been integrating liquid and solid biopsy multiomic analysis to discover novel markers for patient stratification and to track tumour clone dynamics in patients progressing through multiple lines of treatment. The overall aims are to improve the management and detection of prostate cancer patients and to discover novel drivers of resistance in multiple cancer types.

About the role

The main purpose of the job is to provide expertise and support for projects concerned with genomic, epigenomic and transcriptomic analysis of liquid biopsies and solid tumours within the Treatment Resistance Team. Applicants should have extensive hands-on experience at a professional level performing next-generation sequencing workflows and analysis with experience in long-read sequencing and single cell analysis workflows being desirable. Applicants should have a PhD or in the process of completing their PhD. Applicants must have demonstrable hands-on experience processing patients’ samples, using databases, working to SOPs, extraction of nucleic acids from liquid biopsies and tumour samples as well as basic knowledge of programming and prostate cancer. We are seeking a highly motivated candidate who is confident in working independently and where excellent organizational and record-keeping skills are essential.

Appointment at Grade 7 is dependent upon having been awarded a PhD; if this is not the case, initial appointment will be at Research Assistant Grade 6B, with payment at Grade 7 being backdated to the date of final submission of the PhD thesis.

Applications should include a CV and a Cover Letter: In the Cover Letter please provide evidence of the essential and desirable criteria in the Person Specification part of the Job Description. (By including a Cover Letter, you can leave blank the 'Why you have applied for this role' field in the application form, which is limited in the number of characters it will allow.)

The role is available for 18 months in the first instance with the possibility of extension.

About you

You will be a highly motivated and organised researcher with a PhD, or be close to completing a PhD, in a relevant biological or biomedical discipline. You will have substantial hands-on experience in next-generation sequencing workflows, together with a strong understanding of genomic analysis and cancer biology. Experience working with patient-derived samples, nucleic acid extraction and sample management systems will enable you to contribute effectively to a range of translational research projects.

You will be confident using programming tools such as R or Python to analyse sequencing data and will be familiar with working within regulatory and quality frameworks relevant to biomedical research. A methodical approach to record keeping, data management and laboratory processes will be essential.

As a collaborative and proactive team member, you will have excellent organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities while working both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary research team. You will be committed to maintaining high research standards and contributing positively to the wider activities and culture of the department. Experience of long-read or single-cell sequencing technologies would be advantageous.

What we offer

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:

• 41 Days holiday (including 27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)

• Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)

• Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan

• On-Site nursery

• On-site gym

• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay

• Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service

• Discounted medical insurance

Please visit  https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/rewards-and-benefits  to find out more.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.

We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce.

These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.

You can read more about our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion/