Research Fellow

Location: Southampton General Hospital Salary: £34,980 Per annum Full Time Fixed Term until 31/10/2024 Closing Date: Friday 24 November 2023 Interview Date: To be confirmed Reference: 2505623AF

An opportunity has arisen for a research fellow to join the Faculty of Medicine, School of Human Development and Health, at the University of Southampton, based at Southampton General Hospital (University Hospital Southampton) campus. The successful candidate will join a research team involved in the application of metabolomics to study the metabolic mechanisms linking childhood malnutrition to adult non-communicable diseases in low and middle-income countries . This research spans several disciplines including the areas of biochemistry, nutrition, human development, global health, and bioinformatics.

This project aims to characterise the metabolomic alterations induced by early life malnutrition and how these persist in later life and contribute to phenotypic outcomes, primarily non-communicable diseases. We will also investigate how the rate of recovery from early life malnutrition imprints on these profiles and relationships. This project is in collaboration with research partners at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of the West Indies, University of Malawi, and Jimma University, Ethiopia.

Many factors such as lifestyle ( e.g. smoking, physical activity) or dietary habits, from infancy to adulthood influence risk of cardiometabolic conditions and other non-communicable diseases (NCD). It is increasingly recognised that malnutrition (including stunting) in early life and/or post- malnutrition weight gain (PMWG) can also increase the likelihood of some of these factors. To understand the biochemical mechanisms involved in these processes, this project will apply NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry based metabolomic approaches to study early and later life biological samples from individuals that experienced a range of nutritional exposures. This includes individuals from Ethiopia, Jamaica, and Malawi. These biochemical signatures will then be studied to assess how nutritional status in childhood shapes the adult metabolic phenotype, and how such changes influence health and NCD risk. The post holder will be required to acquire, process, and analyse metabolomic data from these biological samples.

The role requires expertise in analytical chemistry, specifically NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, and/or expertise in bioinformatics for interrogating complex metabolomic data. The successful candidate should have experience in omics-technologies, biochemistry, bioinformatics, or nutrition and global health.

This full-time position is offered for a fixed-term for 10 months in the first instance. The post will be aligned to the Faculty of Medicine, School of Human Development and Health, based at Southampton General Hospital (University Hospital Southampton) campus and Highfield campus.

For further information please contact Professor Jonathan Swann ([email protected])

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Apply by midnight on the closing date. For assistance contact Recruitment on +44(0)2380 592750 or [email protected] quoting the job number.

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