The role
The Rosalind Franklin Institute (The Franklin) is a National Research Centre, funded by the UK government through UK Research and Innovation, dedicated to bringing about transformative changes in life science through interdisciplinary research and technology.
The Biological Mass Spectrometry theme focuses on the development of new instrumentation for mass spectrometric imaging (MSI) allowing the visualisation of molecular distributions at subcellular level and the de-novo structure elucidation of chemical species detected by MSI techniques. The ultimate goal of the Theme is to understand the working mechanism of molecular interaction networks in health and disease and define novel diagnostic and prognostic targets for next generation healthcare.
The project focuses on the development of novel mass spectrometric imaging instrumentation including tandem trapped ion mobility spectrometry/time-of-flight/Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (TIMS-TOF-FT-ICR) analyser, multimodal imaging ion source featuring laser desorption and particle desorption techniques with post-desorption ionisation modalities and new primary ion beams for secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The new analytical platforms are being used for the multi-scale MS imaging of biological samples to obtain hitherto unprecedented combination of spatial resolution down to the visualisation of organelles and obtaining accurate mass fragmentation trees and CCS values for all detected species. The postholder is expected to develop new data pre-processing and data interpretation workflows for the novel type of mass spectrometric imaging datasets. The workflows are envisioned to include signal processing, statistical analysis methods (multivariate and univariate), neural network-driven artificial intelligence approaches and construction of feature databases among others. The main purpose of these workflows is to convert the spatially resolved spectroscopic information into chemical information i.e. the spatial concentration distribution of chemically well defined species.
The project is a collaboration with Bruker Corporation, Ionoptika Ltd. and a number of other instrument manufacturers, with whom you will work extensively, while liaising with MS and data science experts in the UK and beyond. The postholder will be expected to primarily use modified and off-the-shelf Bruker mass spectrometric instrumentation. The post reports to the RFI's Theme Leads for Biological Mass Spectrometry (Profs Josephine Bunch and Zoltan Takats), and will also work with other Franklin Themes, in particular Artificial Intelligence led by Dr. Mark Basham.
About you
Candidates must hold a post-graduate qualification, or equivalent experience, in Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Biomolecular Science, or related subjects. We are looking for candidates with experience in mass spectrometric imaging, as well as experience in analytical method development.
Before submitting your application please ensure you read the Job Information Pack for full details of this role by clicking on the attachment on our website:
https://opportunities.rfi.ac.uk/vacancy/postdoctoral-research-associate-in-chemo-and-bioinformatics--499044.htmlAbout us
The Rosalind Franklin Institute is a new national Research Centre, funded by the UK government through UK Research and Innovation, dedicated to bringing about transformative changes in life science through interdisciplinary research and technology.
Location: The Franklin is based in Harwell Campus, UK’s innovation hub and well-established as one of the leading science and innovation campuses in Europe.
Closing date: 17th October 2022 at 09:00am
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Location Harwell
Type of Post
Full Time
Period of appointment 2 years fixed-term contract
Salary £33,500 - £41,000 per annum
Closing Date 17/10/2022
Ref No 10229
