Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Location: Camden (King's Cross, London)
Salary: £35,802 to £39,997 Per Annum Including London Weighting
Fixed Term / Full Time
Closing Date: 05/12/2021
Interview Date: To be confirmed
Reference: CBS-0121-21
This is a fixed term contract for 30 months, with a possibility to extend up to a total of 36
months.
Topic: Developing personalised medicine for CLN3 disease
Job summary
Juvenile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (JNCL), a paediatric progressive neurodegenerative
disease is predominantly caused by a mutation that causes novel transcripts and this appears
to result in new function. In this project, you will model this and other mutations in zebrafish,
aiming to create and validate disease models that can be used for developing personalised
therapies.
Aim
The post is full time and the successful applicant will be responsible for running the
experimental program outlined in the awarded grant. We will use gene editing, antisense
morpholino and mRNA injection to create the desired zebrafish disease model, with validation
as a disease model via transcript and phenotypic analysis.
The Collaboration
The project will be supervised by Dr Claire Russell (RVC) with collaborators Prof Jason Rihel
(UCL) and Dr Anselm Zdebik (UCL). Training will be provided by the supervisor, colllaborators
or members of their teams. The post is funded by the Medical Research Council led by Prof
Sara Mole at UCL and is part of a larger project that will identify CLN3 transcripts in patients
and investigate the function of CLN3 protein from normal and abnormal transcripts using cells
and yeast.
Due to the collaborative nature of the project, you are likely to spend time working in one or
more UCL locations as well as the RVC.
The RVC
Within the RVC, the Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences (headed by Prof Caroline
Wheeler‐Jones) consists of about 40 academic staff. Research activities cover various basic
science disciplines including molecular biology, genetics, development, neurobiology, cellular
biology, pharmacology, anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and locomotion. Your research is
within the Brain Health and Behaviour group (led by Dr Claire Russell) within the Comparative
Physiology and Clinical Sciences Research Programme (led by Prof Dominic Wells). Funding for
the Department’s research is obtained from the Research Councils, various charitable
organisations and industry.
Your profile
Applicants must have a PhD in a biological science or equivalent, and experience using
zebrafish and gene editing. Equally desirable qualities are the ability to troubleshoot and
optimise experiments, good organisational skills and record‐keeping, effective teamwork and
excellent communication skills, with a high degree of motivation. You will be expected to
perform risk assessment and follow health and safety rules. The degree of experience required
means it is likely that the successful candidate will have already held a postdoctoral position.
Informal enquiries to Dr Claire Russell
[email protected] We offer a generous reward package including a pension scheme.
The RVC values diversity and is committed to the equality of opportunity. Balancing both the needs of the
business with those of our staff, we will consider applications to work on a flexible basis where possible.
