research fellow London, England
Job description
About us
The Faculty of Life Sciences is an exciting and dynamic environment driving forward ambitious and challenging plans for future development.
We are committed to enhancing research and teaching in relation to major global challenges, including climate change, sustainability, technological change and the data revolution and inequality.
Ranked No. 1 in London and No. 8 in the world (QS World University Rankings 2021) the Faculty offers an outstanding and diverse portfolio of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in biological and biomedical sciences, pharmacy, pharmacological and pharmaceutical sciences, neuroscience and machine learning.
The Faculty is made up of five academic Divisions: UCL School of Pharmacy, Biosciences, the Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neurocircuits and Behaviour and the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit.
In addition, it is home to a specialist teaching facility, the Cruciform Teaching Facilities Unit. Some of the constituent parts of the Faculty have long and distinguished histories that can be traced back to the early 19th century when UCL was founded and we are proud to have nine Nobel Laureates associated with the Faculty of Life Sciences.
UCL School of Pharmacy is one of the world’s leading centres of excellence for pharmaceutical science, education and professional engagement. The Division has a well-established track record in high quality research across a broad range of drug discovery, pharmacy and patient safety related areas as well as in the development of spinout companies. These companies are bringing new therapeutic strategies to the patient.
The Faculty of Life Sciences is an exciting and dynamic environment driving forward ambitious and challenging plans for future development. We are committed to enhancing research and teaching in relation to major global challenges, including climate change, sustainability, technological change and the data revolution and inequality.
About the role
The position is funded until 30 June 2024 in the first instance with a view to extending to 30 September if funder agrees. However, the funding body requires a review of the project at month 6th and at month 12th. Upon positive review of the achieved progresses the project will be continued. If the 6th or 12th month review is rated unsatisfactory by the funding body the funding will be terminated and so will the position here advertised.
The role
The post holder will set-up a machine learning pipeline to aid in the discrimination of Parkinson’s cases vs controls focusing on the use of inflammatory markers. Patient level data are already available (mainly via the PPMI initiative, but also from GEO) and contain a set of genotyping, RNAseq and proteomics datasets (cases and controls). The project is funded by the MJFF.
Details of the project:
The post holder will use repositories such as Reactome, KEGG and Gene Ontology to generate a comprehensive list of the genes/proteins within the proinflammatory-cytokines family and cluster them into functional groups. They will download and QC patient level data and impute genotyping data. The patient level data will be used to evaluate changes in expression levels as well as burden of genetic variants within the proinflammatory-cytokines genes.
A regression model will finally be set-up to differentiate sporadic-PD cases vs controls. UCL is currently trialling hybrid working and the successful applicant may work remotely for up to 60% of the week if they wish.
The team/context/academic area
The project is a collaboration between UCL (Dr. Manzoni) and the University of Cardiff (Prof. Escott-Price). Dr Manzoni’s interest is in systems biology and network analysis and in genetics of Parkinson’s and frontotemporal dementia. Prof. Escott-Price is a statistician with well-established track records in genetics of dementias. The team can provide support and training for genetics and proteomics analyses. However, the postholder should be already fluent in R coding and trained in handling RNAseq data at the time of appointment. The postholder will meet regularly with both Dr Manzoni and Prof Escott-Price. The postholder will be based in London at UCL, however they will be required to travel to the University of Cardiff for single day meetings or for few days training if necessary (travel expenses will be covered by the grant).
About you
Key Requirements/About you (refer to Person specification section/Ways of Working/core behaviours)
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/human-resources/policies-advice/ways-working
We are looking for a candidate with PhD-level experience in bioinformatics, able to work with transcriptomics data. Experience with genotyping and proteomics data handling is desirable but not essential as training can be provided.
The candidate should be able to code fluently in R and use a Linux-based high performance computing (HPC) environment. Knowledge of machine learning techniques is required.
Ideally, the candidate should have worked in the field of neurodegeneration or immunology, however this is not an essential requirement.
The candidate should be aware of the GDPR requirements when working with patient level data and should be willing to implement high standard working practice to protect patient’s data and pipelines.
The job will also involve the writing of scientific reports for the funder. The post-holder is expected to present their work at lab and departmental meetings as well as at conferences.
What we offer
As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits which can be seen in the link below:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/human-resources/pay-benefits/staff-benefits
Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.
We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce.
These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.
Our department holds an Athena SWAN Bronze award, in recognition of our commitment to advancing gender equality.
