The Garvan Institute of Medical Research brings together world leading researchers and clinicians, collaborating locally and globally, to improve human health. Our mission is to harness all the information encoded in our genome to better diagnose, treat, predict and prevent disease. From the individual patient with rare disease, to the many thousands affected by complex, widespread illness, we are pioneering discoveries across diseases that have the deepest impact on our community.
Marina Pajic heads an innovative multidisciplinary personalised medicine for pancreatic cancer research program. Her research builds on and goes beyond our knowledge of the genetics of cancer, to better understand how the surrounding tumour environment controls and drives the aggressive nature of this disease, metastasis of the cancer, and resistance to treatment. With this new insight, her team is developing novel, tailored therapeutic interventions, whereby cancers are selected for optimal treatment based on their overall molecular “fingerprint”. Her lab studies human disease using advanced molecular and cellular biology, immunology & imaging methodologies. With close clinical collaborators, we are translating the most promising treatment strategies into clinical trials.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED

The key skills and experience include:

Essential

• PhD in relevant field such as cancer cell biology and/or immunology and a minimum of 3 years post-doctoral experience
• Demonstrate a significant record of scientific achievement with a strong first-author and emerging senior/co-senior author track record of scientific publications in high quality peer-reviewed journals
• Demonstrate a high level of research independence and innovation, evidenced by emerging competitive fellowships, grants
• Established expertise in a wide range of molecular, cell biology techniques, including single cell and spatial methodologies, multiparameter flow cytometry, animal models of disease, and ability to rapidly learn new techniques
• Strong problem solving, analytical skills, and strategic thinking
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work well and flexibly with a wide range of varying stakeholders
• Experience leading and managing teams (desirable)
• Bioinformatics experience, in particular with analysis of single cell and/or spatial transcriptomics datasets (desirable)
• Strong leadership and mentoring skills (desirable)

ABOUT GARVAN

Garvan Institute of Medical Research is an independent Medical Research Institute (MRI) in Sydney, delivering scientific and clinical impact on a global basis and in partnership with organisations that share our vision. We are proud to be one of Australia’s largest and most highly regarded MRI’s.
Our vision is global leadership in discoveries to impact and our enduring purpose is to impact human health, by harnessing information encoded in our genome.
We seek to see our world-class discovery research achieve life-changing impacts, not only for individual patients with rare diseases, but for the many thousands affected by complex, common disease.
Garvan promotes a diverse workplace and is committed to the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging. We are always looking for culture ‘add’, not culture ‘fit’ and are building diverse teams with great sets of complementary styles and skills to help deliver our important work effectively.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Senior Research Officer will be making significant contributions in the following areas accompanied by an increasing level of performance within the criteria for progression from SRO1 to SRO3.

Research Excellence

• Successful leadership of research projects resulting in first or senior, co-senior authorship of published articles in leading journals, books, conference papers / reports and other research publications
• Contribution to productive research outcomes in team and collaborative projects resulting in mid-authorships on scientific publications
• Developing national and international recognition by invited seminar presentations and oral/poster presentations at leading national and international meetings
• Role as a named Investigator on successful research proposal submissions to external funding bodies, demonstrating success in attracting competitive fellowships

Team effort

• Supervision and mentoring of research students and junior research staff to support beneficial outcomes for the lab’s research, and creating a path to independence
• Contribute to research projects other than his/her own and to the development of new collaborations to maximise the opportunities for the cross-fertilisation of ideas, techniques and complex research problem-solving
• Contribute expertise and assist with general lab experiments, including animal-based work
• Working closely with our consumers to ensure the relevance of our patient-centric approach to research
• Administrative functions to assist efficient day-to-day operations of the research lab and facilities

Institute Contributions

• Contribution to Garvan’s organisation and management through membership of committees, participation in training and mentoring programs and other activities to promote a culture of research excellence and collegiality
• Interact productively (where appropriate) within and across Platforms / Centres, lead constructive discussion at Garvan’s seminars and be seen as a person whom junior staff can approach for technical advice
• Promotion of research links with external partners
• Involvement in professional service through active participation in scientific societies
• Participation in Garvan promotion and fund-raising events, including community talks and Garvan public tours

General responsibilities (applicable to all levels):

• All staff are required to comply with Garvan’s workplace polices (as amended from time to time) and especially Garvan’s Work Health & Safety (WHS) Policy, including working in accordance with the WHS management system at all times, as safety is Garvan’s number one priority.