The Breast Cancer Now Centre is located on the Chelsea site and is the first centre in the UK entirely devoted to breast cancer research, with the goal to advance research into the causes, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. It is located in state-of-the-art laboratory space, with excellent core facilities and funding.
https://www.icr.ac.uk/our-research/research-divisions/division-of-breast-cancer-researchAbout the Molecular Cell Biology team
Cancer as a disease can be regarded as having three broad stages:
Uncontrolled growth of primary tumour
Invasion into adjacent tissues
Metastasis, in which tumour cells escape from the primary site and re-establish growth at distant, secondary locations
In breast cancer, as with other cancers of epithelial origin, these proliferative, invasive and metastatic events do not result solely from rogue cancer cells acquiring additional capabilities and behaving abnormally within 'normal' surroundings. Rather, all three stages rely on the ability of the tumour cells to recruit and activate neighbouring non-tumour (stromal) cells and, additionally, to respond to the signals that these activated stromal cells produce. Further, there is now increasing evidence that these activated stromal cells can modulate the response of tumour cells to both targeted therapies and cytotoxic chemotherapy.
In the Isacke lab, a focus is placed on tumour cells in the context of their cellular and non-cellular environments, particularly the metastatic microenvironment. Our goal is to identify pathways and processes that can be targeted for the prevention or suppression of secondary disease or which are responsible for treatment-resistant tumour progression. The successful candidate will undertake a project to dissect how the microenvironment at different metastatic sites can differently modulate tumour cell colonisation and outgrowth, and how this microenvironment can be adversely affected by treatment with systemic chemotherapy and/or targeted agents. The candidate will be embedded into a team of scientists working with state-of-the-art cancer models and interacting with our excellent core facility, clinical colleagues and industrial collaborators
https://www.icr.ac.uk/our-research/research-divisions/division-of-breast-cancer-research/molecular-cell-biologyThe position is offered on a fixed term 3-year contract. Starting salary is in the range of £32,844* to £40,137 per annum inclusive based on previous postdoctoral experience. Annual leave entitlement is 28 days per annum. There is an additional entitlement to 8 bank/public holidays and 3 ICR-set privilege days.
*thesis submitted, awaiting PhD award
More information on our site in the job description, job ref 1109.
