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Vacancy: Centre Director, Parkinson's Research Centre
In partnership with Parkinson’s UK, we are seeking to appoint the inaugural Director of our new Parkinson’s Research Centre (PRC) to be launched in 2025. The PRC will adopt a distributed, network structure, with researchers hosted in leading universities across the UK. You will lead and set the scientific direction and vision of the PRC, with the overarching objective of driving research excellence.
Closing date: 23 April 2025
Full information
Current Vacancies
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Key details
- Location UK DRI at Imperial
- Salary: £48,056 - £56,345 per annum
- Lab: Dr Marco Brancaccio
The Brancaccio Lab invites applications from talented, highly motivated and creative postdoctoral scientists to take a leading role in one of the following projects investigating molecular cellular and circuit mechanisms driving circadian dysfunction in pre-clinical models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
What you would be doing
Project: Leveraging circadian clocks to prevent Alzheimer’s disease
In this project, you will develop new molecular tools modifying circadian pathways to prevent/ delay Alzheimer’s disease. This project stems from newly established mouse models and clock molecular targets identified in the Brancaccio Lab. You will perform viral delivery of gene therapy viral vectors, behavioural assessment of sleep-wake cycles and cognition, multiplexed live imaging in brain tissue, combinatorial intersectional genetics, and multivariate statistical analysis of time series to validate new chronotherapeutic interventions in Alzheimer’s disease. Further experience with analyses of large ‘OMICS dataset and advanced molecular biology tools in addition to stereotaxic brain surgery and live imaging will be an element of significant strength for this position. Previous knowledge of circadian biology is desirable but not strictly necessary.
What we are looking for
- You will be a motivated and organised researcher, excited by the science we do.
- You will hold (or be near completion of) a PhD in neuroscience (or related discipline).
- Experience of one or more laboratory techniques including live imaging microscopy and advanced techniques of molecular biology (e.g., cloning, viral vector design, construction and production, CRISPR/Cas9 and/or RNAi functional interference
- Experience of one or more software packages is essential: MATLAB, ImageJ, SigmaPlot,
- Prism, R, as is experience in statistical analysis.
- Practical experience with RNAseq, RNA scope, and spatial transcriptomic techniques is highly desirable.
- Experience with multivariate statistical analysis of (circadian) time series is highly desirable.
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Key details
- Location UK DRI at Cambridge
- Salary: £46,735-£59,139
- Lab: Prof Mina Ryten
Applications are invited for a Group Leader in the UK Dementia Research Institute (DRI) at the University of Cambridge, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
The mission of the UK DRI at the University of Cambridge, led by Professor Mina Ryten, is to create a collaborative, inter-disciplinary Centre that combines world-leading expertise across cell biology, chemistry, transcriptomics and genetics to understand the mechanisms driving neurodegeneration. We study all stages of disease in order to identify therapeutic targets with the greatest potential to treat dementia. Our existing research themes encompassing protein aggregation and clearance, ER dynamics, autophagy, DNA repair and transcriptomics, have already been highly successful and we intend to build on this momentum by continuing to recruit talented scientists.
We are looking for a clinical or non-clinical researcher to lead an individual internationally competitive research programme into neurodegeneration within the UK DRI here at Cambridge. We seek creative and innovative proposals for a new research programme in areas including but not limited to: the genetics of neurodegenerative disorders, the application of 'Omics technologies to the study of neurodegenerative disorders and the development of computational methods with a particular focus on integrative approaches.
For questions relating to the post, please contact Professor Mina Ryten at mr2022@cam.ac.uk for an informal and confidential discussion about the role.
Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 5 years in the first instance.
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Key details
- Location: UK DRI at Cardiff, Cardiff
- Salary: UKRI level minimum stipend of £20,780 per year for your living costs
About the Project
An individual's risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is partially determined by changes in their genes. Small changes in specific genes increase the risk of developing AD. Genetic analysis of large cohorts of individuals have reported an association with variants in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes and AD. An individual’s HLA genotype determines how the immune response recognises and responds to different antigens in different individuals and variants in HLA have been reported as major risk factors for complex diseases. Within the brain, HLA genes are predominantly expressed on the surface of microglia and present peptides to T-cells. Due to the highly polymorphic nature of HLA genes, the strong linkage disequilibrium and the population-specific genetic diversity determining the exact genetic variants responsible for influencing disease risk is complex, and how an individual’s HLA makeup drives AD aetiology remains to be explored.
This studentship will use a range of bioinformatic and wet lab approaches and be based in the lab of Dr Sarah Carpanini (iPSC) and co-supervised by Dr Rebecca Sims (bioinformatician). The student will use induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models of microglia with different HLA genetics to explore whether variants in HLA alter microglial antigen presentation in AD.
This will improve our understanding of how the HLA genes influence risk for AD, which HLA genes are most important in AD, and how these HLA genes affect microglia function. Understanding the genes influencing AD allows us to identify those at risk and assist in developing new drug treatments.
The student will gain expertise in neurodegenerative disease modelling, molecular biology and genetics and be based in the UK Dementia Research Institute (DRI) at Cardiff University.
Entry Requirements
You will hold or expect to achieve a First or Upper Second Class degree in biomedical science, biochemistry, cell biology or a related subject. As this is a training doctorate, previous research experience is not essential.
Applicants whose first language is not English are normally expected to meet the minimum University requirements (e.g. 6.5 IELTS).