Job reference
P89546
Date posted
03/11/2023
Application closing date
07/12/2023
Location
Exeter
Salary
The starting salary will be from £32,982 up to £34,980 on Grade E, depending on qualifications and experience.
Package
Generous holiday allowances, flexible working, pension scheme and relocation package (if applicable).
Contractual hours
36.5
Basis
Full-time
Job category/type
Research
Attachments
P89546 JD PS.pdf
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Job description
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Clinical & Biomedical Sciences
The above full-time (1.0 FTE) post is immediately available until 2nd November 2026 on a fixed-term basis, within the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences.
The post
The Faculty wishes to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Associate to support the work of Dr. Nick Owens. This Wellcome funded post is available immediately for three to four years.
The successful applicant will join an interdisciplinary team of laboratory and computational scientists studying the sequence code underlying regulatory regions in disease. The post will focus on defects in gene regulation involving transcription factors and cell-cell signalling during pancreatic differentiation to understand rare, congenital diseases such as neonatal diabetes and congenital hyperinsulinism.
The applicant will undertake in vitro differentiation of pancreatic cells from embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent cells, and they will perform perturbation studies through genome editing and RNA interference. The project will assess the simultaneous binding of multiple transcription factors measured by base-pair resolution chromatin accessibility from single-molecule footprinting (also known as NOMe-seq, Fiber-seq, SMAC-seq, nanoNOMe) using Oxford Nanopore Technologies long-read sequencing. A range of functional genomic transcription factor binding and chromatin assays will also be used, such as ChIP-seq, CUT&RUN, CUT&TAG, and ATAC-seq at single-cell and bulk level.
This post is an opportunity to become a pivotal member of a team working to gain insights into how regulatory regions control gene expression during developing and adult cells, and how changes to regulatory sequences result in disease. The applicant will join a world-leading centre for diabetes research at the University of Exeter.
The position will come provision for training in pancreatic cell differentiation and cross-disciplinary computational training giving the applicant the means to analyse their own data.
About you
The successful applicant will be able to present information on research progress and outcomes, communicate complex information, orally, in writing and electronically and prepare proposals and applications to external bodies.
Applicants will possess a relevant PhD (or be nearing completion) or possess an equivalent qualification/experience in a related field of study and be able to demonstrate sufficient knowledge in the discipline and of research methods and techniques to work within established research programmes. Applicants will have experience in cell culture and genome editing, we are keen to recruit those with experience in pluripotent cell differentiation assays, particularly previous experience in pancreatic differentiation.
Please ensure you read the Job Description and Person Specification for full details of this role by clicking on the attachment.
What we can offer you
Freedom (and the support) to pursue your intellectual interests and to work creatively across disciplines to produce internationally exciting research;
Support teams that understand the University wide research and teaching goals and partner with our academics accordingly
The University of Exeter
We are a member of the prestigious Russell Group of research-intensive universities and in the top 200 universities in the world (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 and QS World University Ranking 2024). We combine world-class teaching with world-class research, achieving a Gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework Award 2023, underpinned by Gold ratings for Student Experience and Student Outcomes.
Our world-leading research impact has grown more than any other Russell Group university in recent years, and we are home to some of the world's most influential researchers, seeking to answer some of the most fundamental issues facing humankind today. More than 99% of our research is of international quality and 47% is world-leading (2021 Research Excellence Framework).
We encourage proactive engagement with industry, business and community partners to enhance the impact of research and education and improve the employability of our students. Read about our world leading research – Green Futures and how we are transforming education for a changing world. We are located in a beautiful part of the country and Exeter (a fast growing tech hub) is one of only a few UK cities to have been designated as a UNESCO Creative City
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Commitment
We are committed to ensuring reasonable adjustments are available for interviews and workplaces.
Whilst all applicants will be judged on merit alone, we particularly welcome applications from groups currently underrepresented within our working community.
With over 30,000 students and 7,000 staff from 150 different countries we offer a diverse and engaging environment where our diversity is celebrated and valued as a major strength. We are committed to creating an inclusive culture where all members of our community are supported to thrive; where diverse voices are heard through our engagement with evidence-based charter frameworks for gender (Athena SWAN and Project Juno for Physics), race equality (Race Equality Charter Mark), LGBTQ+ inclusion (Stonewall Diversity Champion) and as a Disability Confident employer.
Further information
For further information please contact Dr. Nick Owens, e-mail [email protected].
The closing date for completed applications is Thursday 7 th December 2023 (Midnight-00:00am). Interviews are expected to take place shortly after.