The Department of Life Sciences was the top ranked university department in the UK for research intensity in Biological Sciences in REF2014 Times Higher Education, scoring 100% on our environment.
A Research Associate position is available to join the laboratory of Professor Gloria Rudenko in the Department of Life Sciences based at the South Kensington Campus of Imperial College London.
The research programme investigates the molecular biology of African trypanosomes, particularly with regards to the epigenetic control of gene expression. Trypanosomes provide an experimentally amenable system for investigating transcriptional control in an early branching eukaryote. Trypanosomes are single-celled eukaryotes which are protected by a dense Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG) coat. Each trypanosome encodes hundreds of VSG coats, but only one VSG gene is transcribed at a time. The active VSG is located in one of about 15 telomeric VSG expression site transcription units. Trypanosomes can continuously switch between transcription of different VSG expression sites.
We would like to understand how this singular expression of one VSG gene at a time is controlled. How are VSG expression sites turned on and off, and how is their mono-allelic expression controlled? We would like to investigate the role of epigenetic mechanisms. These include chromatin structure, epigenetic marks and nuclear positioning. Expression sites are always telomeric. What is the role of genomic architecture? Hopefully the candidate will help us answer these questions and elucidate how these variant surface genes are controlled. Additional information about our research programme is available on our lab website:
http://rudenkolab.co.uk/.
Duties and responsibilities
To acquire and interpret research data and take initiative in the planning of research
To maintain accurate and complete records of all findings
To present findings to colleagues and at conferences
Function independently as a research scientist with the ability to take initiative.
Supervise the work of undergraduate and postgraduate students
Draft publications and prepare them for submission to refereed journals.
Essential requirements
A Undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology
A PhD (or equivalent) in Molecular Biology
You must be able to demonstrate the following:
Experience in investigating the mechanistic molecular biology of any experimental system.
Interest in and preferably experience in investigating transcriptional control.
Experience in a broad range of molecular biology techniques including: sterile cell culture and transfection, DNA cloning, Nucleic acid and protein analysis, PCR, qPCR, immunofluorescence microscopy
The ability to develop and apply new concepts and have a creative approach to problem-solving.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
An ability to organise your own work with minimal supervision.
Further information
Any candidate who has not been yet been awarded their PhD, will be appointed as a Research Assistant within the salary range £33,380 - £35,061 per annum.
This is a full time, fixed term position for two years.
For informal enquiries, please contact Professor Gloria Rudenko via email at
[email protected] .
Should you have any queries about the application process, contact Peggy Baker by email at
[email protected] and refer to the job reference number NAT00311.
For technical queries when applying online, contact
[email protected] .
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/
