Research Assistant in Clonal Haematopoiesis

at  Kings College London

Job id: 094949. Salary: £37,332 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.
Posted: 30 August 2024. Closing date: 15 September 2024.
Business unit: Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine. Department: Comprehensive Cancer Centre.
Contact details: Lynn Quek. Lynn.quek@kcl.ac.uk
Location: Denmark Hill Campus. Category: Research.
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About us
King’s College London is one of the foremost universities in the UK with a strong track record in Life Sciences research. This post will be based in Haematology, which is part of the School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Our group, the Myeloid Leukaemia Genomics and Biology Group https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/myeloid-leukaemia-genomics-and-biology-group is based at Denmark Hill. We are a dynamic and diverse group of post-docs, PhD students and research assistants. Our research interests are in myeloid cancers and clonal haematopoiesis, and we work mainly with patient donated samples with a focus on translating our findings to improve clinical care.
About the role
This is an exciting opportunity to work with a team of dedicated and expert researchers on Clonal Haematopoiesis and its role in cancer and age-related inflammatory disease.
Clonal haematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) is where older and apparently healthy people acquire gene mutations in their blood cells which increase their risk of cancer and inflammatory disease, including heart disease, autoimmune disease, chronic obstructive lung disease and diabetes. CHIP has been identified as a potential point of origin for blood cancers, and thus we have an opportunity to elucidate the mechanism of cancer development and prevention strategies. We have recently found that CHIP increases the likelihood of poor recovery after a heart attack.
The postholder will be part of the team that researches CHIP and its impact on age-related diseases. This post is a wonderful opportunity to gain exposure to both clinical and laboratory research work, and is ideal for someone who is interested in translational research.
For 20% of their time the postholder will work with clinicians to help recruit patients to our study. Experience of patient-facing work, a good understanding of ethics and HTA legislation is required. Prior GCP training/ certification is an advantage.
They will also gain skills in genomic and cytometry techniques, including making next generation sequencing libraries, single cell multi-omics, flow cytometry and computational pipelines to analyse these data.
We are seeking a skilled, and enthusiastic candidate to join our team. The successful applicant will be someone who is interested in, and/ or has experience working with members of the public, enjoys working on a team, has excellent communication skills, and who has an open and self-motivated approach to challenges and learning. In addition to having a solid base in human biology, biochemistry and genomics, the successful candidate will have excellent organisation, team working and numeracy skills. A desire and aptitude for computational data analysis (training will be provided) will be an advantage.
We are especially interested in helping promising researchers develop their career and encourage applications from those who see this post as a launchpad for their scientific ambitions. Our group has an excellent track record in helping our research assistants secure PhD positions (a 67% success rate so far!).
The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.
This is a full time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 31st August 2025.
About you
To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

• Bachelor degree in a relevant biological sciences project.
• Have experience of working in a laboratory environment
• Knowledge of cell culture, basic molecular biology (PCR, qPCR) and cell separation techniques, next generation sequencing technologies, genetics and basic concepts in blood cancers.
• Demonstrate evidence of good numerical and reasoning skills, expertise in basic IT (Word/ Excel/ Powerpoint) and data analysis tools, good presentation skills, communication skills (written & verbal), and IT skills.
• Possess scientific integrity and understanding of the importance of study design, power calculations and statistical analysis.
• Ability to work independently and integrate with colleagues, work as part of a team, and undertake a share of group tasks.
• Proven ability to manage own research and administrative activities efficiently, prioritise, meet targets and deadlines, and keep clear and well organised laboratory notes and records.

Desirable criteria

• Have experience of working in a clinical/ patient-facing environment and GCP trained/ certified.
• Experience in tissue culture or handling of primary patient samples, basic molecular biology techniques (PCR, qPCR), preparation of NGS libraries amd Illumina NGS platforms.
• Experience of bioinformatics including working in Unix environment, working in R or Python.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description
Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “

Please refer the Job description for details