Research Assistant/ Associate (Fellow) in Skin and/ or Oral Disease

Salary: 

Research Assistant:  £32,296 - £33,882 per annum 

Research Associate: £34,866 - £45,163 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 05 January 2025

The Role 

We seek an enthusiastic and ambitious Research Assistant/Associate in Skin and/or Oral Disease, in the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), based in the Faculty of Medical Sciences.

This exciting post will be located within the three themes of the BRC skin/oral theme namely a) skin and oral disease and long-term morbidity, b) Human Cell Atlas to clinic: single cell multi-omics to map lifecourse or c) precision medicine and clinical translation. You will have access to state-of-art laboratories within the Faculty of Medical Sciences and to excellent dedicated core research facilities including single cell RNA-sequencing, flow cytometry and mass cytometry.

The aim of this post is to build an independent research portfolio in cutaneous biology with close collaboration and discussion with a chosen principal investigator within the BRC, based on your research interest.  With appropriate support, you will develop a fundamental or translational project based around one of the three themes.

Knowledge of immune-mediated skin and oral diseases including skin/oral cancers, analytical and problem-solving capability and the ability to communicate complex information with clarity, both verbally and in writing, are essential. You will also be able to demonstrate experience in high dimensional flow cytometry experiments and analysis, single cell and spatial transcriptomics experiments and analysis and have given oral presentations at internal and/or external medical or scientific meetings.

You should hold a PhD (for Research Associate Level) or be close to submission of a PhD (for Research Assistant Level) and have at least one first author publication in skin/oral related disease.

To apply for the position, we will need your CV and a personal statement outlining how you are suitable for the role using evidence to highlight how you meet the essential criteria in the knowledge, skills and experience as listed in the job description.

The post is for a fixed term of 12 months.

Informal enquiries to Professor Nick Reynolds (nick.reynolds@ncl.ac.uk) or Professor Muzlifah Haniffa (m.a.haniffa@ncl.ac.uk).

Find out more about the Faculty of Medical Sciences here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/ 

Find out more about our Research Institutes here:
https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/research/institutes/

As part of our commitment to career development for research colleagues, the University has developed 3 levels of research role profiles.  These profiles set out firstly the generic competences and responsibilities expected of role holders at each level and secondly the general qualifications and experiences needed for entry at a particular level.

Key Accountabilities

•    Developing or build an existing area of fundamental skin/oral research within the three themes with close collaboration and discussion with the PIs
•    Identify one or more clinically and biologically relevant hypothesis generating questions pertaining to the research themes and generate pilot data for further fellowship applications
•    Generate high-quality data that can test the hypothesis generated with support from PIs
•    Interact with other members of the research team, in particular clinicians, technicians, post-doctoral scientists and computational analysts
•    Work with laboratory staff to perform relevant analyses, such as molecular/cellular and single cell genomics techniques, that addresses the hypothesis
•    Interact with your supervisors, biostatisticians, bioinformaticians and computational analysts to discuss the experimental data and clinical metadata to devise appropriate plans for analysis
•    With the support from the supervising research team, analyse your data and prepare them for publication in relevant journals that can be a springboard for successful fellowship applications
•    Provide guidance to other staff and students, potentially including supervision of undergraduate research project students
•    Interact with other relevant individuals. This will include interactions with members of the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) in Ageing and Long-Term conditions, and members of national collaborative studies including, for example,the Human Cell Atlas initiative, BADBIR, PSORT, A-Star

•    Attend and present your work at laboratory team, BRC, and national/international meetings
•    Be prepared to contribute to events celebrating the public engagement of science/social sciences/humanities

The Person 

Knowledge, Skills and Experience 

Essential
•    Knowledge of immune-mediated skin and oral diseases including skin / oral cancers
•    Analytical and problem-solving capability
•    Ability to communicate complex information with clarity, both verbally and in writing 
•    Experience in high dimensional flow cytometry experiments and analysis
•    Experience in single cell and spatial transcriptomics experiments and analysis
•    Oral presentations at internal and/or external medical or scientific meetings
•    A publication track record

Desirable
•    Experience in bioinformatics packages (R studio) relevant to the research within the themes
•    Experience of communicating scientific concepts to the public
•    Involvement/success in obtaining training grants, PhD Studentships or fellowships

Attributes and Behaviour

Essential
•    Evidence of an interest in cutaneous/oral fundamental research 
•    Commitment to a career in fundamental dermatology / oral medicine
•    Ambitious with a demonstrable drive to succeed and to produce work of the highest quality
•    Willingness to take on additional responsibilities, e.g. the day-to-day supervision of undergraduate project students

Desirable
•    The ability to contribute to broader organisational and management processes and to provide leadership, co-ordinating the work of other staff

Qualifications

Essential
•    PhD in a relevant Subject for Research Associate Level 
•    Close to submission of a PhD (writing up) for Research Assistant
•    At least one first author publication of relevance to skin/oral related disease

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 27812