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View Vacancy -- Research Assistant - Biology - NATA 2462
The Medical Research Council (MRC), as part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), have invested a total of £30m over 5 years through the Strategic Priorities Fund to establish a nucleic acid therapy accelerator (NATA) that will support state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research to solve critical issues in nucleic acid drug delivery, through focused NATA research challenges and a NATA infrastructure hub. This will be an internationally unique resource, drawing on world-leading academic expertise in partnership with innovative businesses to discover and test viable ways of delivering oligonucleotide therapies, anchoring the oligonucleotide therapy industry in the UK for many years to come.
The NATA will focus on bringing together key stakeholders around the infrastructure hub while catalysing collaborative R&D activity with focused support to tackle significant barriers facing oligonucleotide therapy delivery to key organs. This investment will support capacity building in terms of equipment, upskilling and domain expertise that will be essential in developing critical mass to catalyse and de-risk the development of next generation nucleic acid medicines.
The NATA has the opportunity to establish a new industrial sector attracting and developing highly skill jobs with the potential of the UK being the leader in the field where global nucleic acid therapies market is expected to be £6 billion by 2025.
The Research assistant will be critical in operating the NATA oligonucleotide in vitro and in vivo validation and pharmacology platforms. The individual will operate and maintain cell culture equipment and materials, undertake biological validation testing, lead compound screening and assess toxicology maker indicators. Other general duties required are to ensure smooth running of the NATA biology lab i.e. database implementation, experimental materials traceability, consumables inventory.
The post holder will assist Researchers on the high industry standard validation of Nucleic Acid Therapeutics for various translational and collaborative projects.
Responsibilities
- Perform the screening, hit validation and toxicology assessment of several classes of Nucleic Acid Therapeutics
- Maintain NATA cell line libraries (immortalized, primary, patient lines)
- Assist with cellular functional studies including cell sorting and microscopy/image analysis
- Carry out target validation and efficacy assessment using mRNA/protein quantification methods
- Manage instruments, reagents and biological resources efficiently
- Troubleshoot and maintain procedures and instrumentation
- Keep excellent scientific records and implement databases
- Present work internally and contribute to lab meetings
- Maintain a good knowledge of the relevant literature and of the wider field and actively promote this to the group
- Support the Lab Manager undertaking lab management duties such as lab and equipment maintenance, H&S administration, inventories
Essential selection criteria
- Hold a relevant degree in Biology or related field
- Experience of working in a laboratory, preferably translational and related to Nucleic Acid Therapeutics
- Expertise in tissue culture including culturing of cells with different characteristics, primary cells, cell lines and genetically engineered cell lines
- Experience in cell-based screening assays such as ELISA, immunocytochemistry and Western blotting
- Experience in primer design and RT-PCR/qPCR protocols
- Experience in high throughput cell-based screening assays
- Experience of data analysis and interpretation
- Computer literacy is essential for the analysis, recording and communication of results
- Working and adhering to standard operating procedures and experience of process analysis and refinement
- Organised, hard-working with a strong eye for detail and is able to work as part of a team
- Demonstrate ability to meet milestones
- Good communication skills and effective engagement with colleagues, collaborators or general public
Desirable selection criteria
- Interdisciplinary interests with an emphasis for chemistry or pharmacology in a translational context
- Experience of tissue analysis from in vivo models
- Experience of the analysis of oligonucleotides; quantification, localization, protein interactions
- Experience of confocal microscopy and image analysis
- Experience of database management
- Experience of in vivo delivery
- Experience of stem cell-derived cultures
The MRC is a unique working environment where scientific researchers and professional support staff can actively partake in world class innovation and collaboration opportunities and their skills and knowledge through accessing a wide catalogue of training & development, including professional registration with the Science Council.
In addition, MRC (part of UKRI) provides its community of employees access to a whole host of useful benefits, including a defined benefit pension scheme and excellent holiday entitlement (30 days plus 2.5 privilege days & 8 bank holidays), family friendly policies (6 months full pay maternity & adoption leave), a range of shopping/travel discounts, access to our Employee Assistant Programme Scheme, Health and Wellbeing Support and a salary sacrifice cycle to work scheme. Please follow this link to find out more - Benefits
Our success is dependent upon our ability to embrace diversity and draw on the skills, understanding and experience of all our people. We warmly invite people from diverse backgrounds and heritage, including people who identify as having a disability, to apply for a role that excites them. As "Disability Confident" employers, we guarantee to interview all applicants who have disclosed they have a disability and who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy.
UKRI supports research in areas that include animal health, agriculture and food security, and bioscience for health which includes research on animals, genetic modification and stem cell research. Whilst you may not have direct involvement in this type of research, you should consider whether this conflicts with your personal values or beliefs.
We will conduct a full and comprehensive pre-employment check as an essential part of the recruitment process on all individuals that are offered a position with UKRI. This will include a security check and an extreme organisations affiliation check. The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role. UKRI reserves the right to run or re-run security clearance as required during the course of employment.
This opportunity is closed to applications.