Postdoctoral Researcher (Preclinical Tumour Biologist and Imaging specialist)

at  Springer Nature

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER (PRECLINICAL TUMOUR BIOLOGIST AND IMAGING SPECIALIST)

Employer
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Location
Dublin, Leinster (IE)
Salary
Up to a maximum starting salary of €47,854 per annum (with increment).
Closing date
2 May 2024
Discipline
Life Science
Job Type
Postdoctoral
Employment - Hours
Full time
Duration
Fixed term
Qualification
PhD
Sector
Academia
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Open Position:
We are seeking to recruit a post-doctoral tumour biologist (preclinical) to join the RCSI Precision Cancer Medicine Group. The successful appointee will work primarily on a SFI funded programme entitled “Leveraging chromosomal instability for improved diagnosis and treatment in bevacizumab resistant metastatic colorectal cancer”, where their main role will be to lead preclinical validation imaging studies.
Project Description:
The project builds on previous high impact publications (Nat Commun. 2018 Oct 5;9(1):4112 & J Clin Oncol. 2018 Jul 10;36(20):2052-2060) that have identified a new classification system (based on copy number alterations patterns) to predict patient response to chemotherapy + bevacizumab (BVZ) in RAS mutant metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients. Overall, we seek to understand why tumours displaying high CIN respond to BVZ and unravel the underlying biology that drives this response.
Job description:
The successful candidate will be responsible for the preclinical imaging studies due to start on the project during 2024. Specifically, they will evaluate the impact of BVZ + standard of care chemotherapy on cancer hallmarks across CIN subtypes in preclinical models employing multi-modality imaging studies. Overall, the study will further unravel the underlying biology that drives BVZ response in this disease.

Key tasks:

• Design, perform and analyse data from preclinical MRI, CT & BLI studies.
• Undertake ex vivo analyses.
• Liaise with collaborators to analyse the preclinical study results in the overall context of the project.

The candidate will be expected to:

• Organise and troubleshoot practical work independently and using their own initiative.
• Support junior members of the PCM Group on a day-to-day basis.
• Communicate results in a professional manner.
• Travel to collaborator meetings in the UK and Belgium as required.
• Keep excellent records, submit research for publication in peer reviewed journals, and contribute to internal and external reporting as required.
• Present research findings at international scientific conferences and meetings.
• The PCM Group have multiple ongoing projects and the candidate will be expected to contribute to multiple projects as required, thus providing ample publication opportunities.
• Out of hours working will occasionally be required. Time off in lieu will be provided.

Qualifications – (Essential)

• A Ph.D. (or submitted Ph.D. thesis) in Tumour Biology or similar discipline.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience – (Essential)

• Significant experience working on preclinical cancer models (ideally in colorectal cancer, but other cancer-types will be considered).
• Significant experience in preclinical imaging, including preclinical MRI, CT and BLI.
• Strong research and scientific writing skills.
• Must be a Team Player.
• Very strong research skills and a proven track record in publication of good research.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills.
• Evidence of leadership / supervision skills (e.g. MSc supervision).
• Attention to detail and thoroughness in work practices and an ability to work to deadlines.
• An ability to foster and sustain academic relationships internally and externally.
• Interested and motivated to work in an open, dynamic and strongly interdisciplinary team as well as independently.
• Excellent organizational, administrative and supervisory skills.
• An ability to handle confidential information with discretion.
• Have a strong ability to multi-task, meet timelines and work accurately.
• Meticulous attention to detail.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience – (Desirable)

• Good knowledge in the field of colorectal cancer.
• Experience in immunohistochemistry, cell culture and other key wet lab techniques.
• Bioinformatics skills (e.g. R, Python, programming skills, machine learning) and experience in analysing high-throughput data (e.g. bulk and single cell RNA sequencing).
• Experience analysing and integrating complex datasets (e.g. imaging, omics- and clinical), and working in a multidisciplinary environment of experts in biomedical sciences, transcriptomics, genomics and bioinformatics.

For details on standard RCSI requirements and employee benefits please refer to the full Job Description that can be accessed here: https://my.corehr.com/pls/coreportalrcsip/erqjobspecdetailsform.jobspec?p_id=040732

• Design, perform and analyse data from preclinical MRI, CT & BLI studies.
• Undertake ex vivo analyses.
• Liaise with collaborators to analyse the preclinical study results in the overall context of the project