Imperial College London Hiring for Research Associate at St. Mary’s Full Time

Applications are invited for the post of Research Associate in the Section of Virology within the Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London.

Human immunodeficiency virus and human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) are the most notorious retroviruses since they are the cause of severe, disabling and sometimes fatal diseases. Ten to 20 million people worldwide are infected with HTLV-1. Of these individuals, about 10% will become ill. The most severe HTLV-1 induced diseases are a neurological inflammatory disease and an aggressive form of leukaemia-lymphoma. So far, no good treatments of HTLV-1 infected patients are available. Patients diagnosed with leukaemia typically die within two years of presentation.

One essential step in the life cycle of retroviruses, such as HTLV-1, is the insertion of a copy of the viral genome into the host DNA. This process is executed by the viral integrase protein. We recently identified a host factor for HTLV-1 integration, PP2A-B56 (Maertens, G.N. NAR 2016; Barski, M.S. et al Nat. Comms, 2020). This project focuses on understanding the contribution of transcription factors in establishing HTLV-1 infection and proviral expression.

For more information on the background of the project, visit this website:

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/g.maertens

Duties and responsibilities

• Take initiatives in the planning of research
• Direct the work of small research teams
• Identify and develop suitable techniques, and apparatus, for the collection and data analysis
• Ensure the validity and reliability of data at all times
• Maintain accurate and complete records of all findings
• Write reports for submission to research sponsors
• Present findings to colleagues and at conferences
• Submit publications to refereed journals
• Provide guidance to staff and students
• Attend relevant workshops and conferences as necessary
• Develop contacts and research collaborations within the College and the wider community
• Promote the reputation of the Group, the Department and the College

Essential requirements

• Research Associate: Hold a PhD (or equivalent) in Molecular (Retro) Virology or a closely related discipline
• Research Assistant: Near completion of a PhD (or equivalent) in Molecular (Retro) Virology or a closely related discipline
• Knowledge of retrovirus replication
• Knowledge/experience working with (delta)retroviruses
• Experience with BSL3 containment work
• Practical experience within a research environment and/or publication in relevant and refereed journals
• Practical experience in a broad range of techniques, including molecular biology, tissue culture, FACS, qRT-PCR, Taqman-PCR, recombinant protein work, EMSA

Further information

This post is a Full Time and Fixed Term post until June 2025 based at our St Mary’s Campus.

Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as a Research Assistant within the salary range £36,694 – £39,888 per annum.

Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Goedele N. Maertens:[email protected]

The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation/

The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes where their use is shown to be necessary for developing new treatments and making medical advances. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level. http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-integrity/animal-research/