View Vacancy -- Research Assistant- 1941

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 Role

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 all cell culture equipment and materials, undertake biological validation testing, lead compound screening and assess toxicology makers. Other general duties required are to ensure smooth running of the NATA biology lab i.e. reagent database entry and routine equipment maintenance.

The post holder will assist Junior/Senior Researchers with industry standard validation of Nucleic Acid Therapeutics for various translational and collaborative projects. They will report to the Head of Biology.

Responsibilities

• Perform the screening, hit validation and toxicology assessment of several classes of Nucleic Acid Therapeutics in an industrial and standardized way
• Take a proactive approach to learning and implementing new techniques and approaches
• Maintain, implement and culture the NATA cell line library (immortalized and primary) and generate stable cell lines as necessary
• Assist on in vivo based studies including cell sorting, microscopy/image analysis and tissue histopathology
• Assist in the preparation of RNA libraries and in the running of the RNA sequencing facility
• Manage instruments, reagents and biological resources efficiently
• Troubleshoot and maintain procedures and instrumentation
• Carry out target validation and efficacy assessment (using both mRNA/protein quantification methods) and analyse/report data (verbal and written report)
• Keep excellent scientific records and implement databases
• Present work internally
• Contribute to lab meetings
• Maintain a good knowledge of the relevant literature and of the wider field and actively promote this to the group
• Effectively manage resources
• Support the Lab Manager undertaking lab management duties such as lab and equipment maintenance, H&S administration, inventory, databases

Essential selection criteria

• Hold a relevant degree in Biology or related filed
• Experience of working in a laboratory, preferably translational and related to Nucleic Acid Therapeutics
• Expertise in tissue culture including culture of cells with different characteristics, primary cells, cell lines and genetically engineered cell lines
• Experience in cell-based screening assays such as ELISA, luciferase, fluorescence and Western blotting
• Experience in primer design and RT-PCR/qPCR protocols
• Experience in high throughput cell-based screening assays
• Fundamental knowledge in gene transcription, protein translation, RNA splicing and the regulation of gene expression
• Experience in data analysis and interpretation
• Computer literacy is essential for the analysis, recording and communication of results
• Ability to manage resources
• Ability to analyse data
• Demonstrate ability to write scientifically
• Capable of critical thinking
• 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 mean milestones
• Flexible and adaptable, able to manage changing priorities
• 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 in tissue/serum/urine analysis
• Experience of the analysis of oligonucleotides; quantification, localization, protein interactions
• Experience with Nucleic Acid technologies including antisense and RNA interference
• Experience of large data set analysis
• Experience of confocal microscopy and image analysis
• Experience of database management
• Experience of platform management
• Experience of in vivo delivery