Research Associate (Molecular regulation of health related behaviours)

Behaviours such as excess ethanol intake and anxiety have a major impact on people's health across the life-course and understanding the genetic and environmental processes that control ethanol intake and anxiety is crucial to developing future preventative interventions and treatments. Context-dependant enhancers (also known as cell-type-specific enhancers) are gene regulatory sequences within the human genome which support the expression of genes essential to health in specific groups of cells and in response to specific cues.The importance of these enhancers to health, and their possible role in disease, has been highlighted by numerous genome wide association studies (GWAS) which demonstrate that >95% of complex disease can be attributed to polymorphisms within regulatory sequences.

This is an exciting 3 year full time opportunity for a motivated and talented Post-doctoral researcher to join Professor Murgatroyd's team and further collaborate with University of Aberdeen. We are looking to identify the molecular mechanisms regulating a context-dependent enhancer that regulate behaviours with an impact on human health and how different types of methylation affect the activity. Finally, we also aikm to understand how DNA-methylation of a context-dependant enhancer is affected by maternal diet in the womb to affect the behaviour of subsequent generations.

The Role:

We are seeking a motivated Post-doctoral Researcher to join a multi-institutional team under the leadership of Professor Murgatroyd. This project involves DNA and RNA sequencing using Nanopore and pyrosequencing together with bioinformatics.

The ideal candidate will be comfortable with liaising with collaborators academics and will be working in a laboratory setting with interest in learning new techniques and computational data analysis. Trainings will be provided by the PI and collaborators. Experience in molecular and cell biology, genetics and DNA sequencing is required. Knowledge of neuroscience, animal models and epigenetic regulatory mechanisms would be an advantage.

Essential skills

Desirable skills

The successful candidate will work within the Department of Life Sciences, which provides state of the art research facilities located newly refurbished laboratories. The Faculty of Science and Engineering is an exciting and dynamic environment in which to conduct cutting edge research.

Qualification we require:

Hold a PhD degree in genetics, biological science, molecular biology, or relevant area.