Research Associate (Jackson Group) (Fixed Term)

at  University of Cambridge

We are looking for a talented and motivated postdoctoral scientist to join the lab of Professor Sir Steve Jackson (https://www.stevejacksonlab.org/), based in the internationally renowned Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute https://www.cruk.cam.ac.uk/, located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK.
Radiotherapy is a mainstay of cancer treatment, but we still do not understand completely why some patients respond well and others do not. Further research is needed to understand the biology of radiosensitivity/resistance and exploit this knowledge to improve patient outcomes. This CRUK RadNet Cambridge-funded project will explore the cell biology of radiation-induced DNA damage to exploit/counteract radioresistance.

The postholder will:

• Design and conduct high-throughput CRISPR screens in human tissue culture cells to explore sensitivity/resistance mechanisms to ionising radiation (IR).
• From these studies, establish how defects and deregulation of certain DNA damage response (DDR) and other cellular processes affect sensitivity and resistance to IR; and identify the potential clinical relevance of these effects in cancer.
• Generate multiple gene knockout and endogenous-degron tagged cell lines that target these resistance and sensitivity processes.
• Carry out follow-up validation and ensuing mechanistic studies - including further high-throughput CRISPR screens - to fully characterise these novel genetic and functional relationships.

The work will be multi-disciplinary, combining recently established genome engineering and genetic screening approaches in human cells with next-generation sequencing, bioinformatics, cell biology, molecular biology and biochemistry.

Please refer the Job description for details