2024 BNA Scholars announced
15th March 2024
Dementia is the greatest health challenge of our century.
The UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) is the biggest initiative supporting research to fill this gap.
Research from UK DRI at UCL covers the journey from the patient to the laboratory and back to the patient with improved diagnosis, biomarkers and candidate therapies put to the test.
The Duff lab is looking for a highly-motivated, experienced and self-driven individual to work on an exciting project that aims to develop novel, sophisticated in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo models to quantify tau and other disease associated aggregate proteins.
In addition, the project aims to monitor pathways such as those impacting aggregate clearance. Assay development and any subsequent drug screening can be undertaken in collaboration with the Alzheimer's Research UK UCL Drug Discovery Institute.
The longer-term goal of this part of the project is to establish a drug discovery programme to develop new therapies for neurodegenerative disease. The candidate will also explore the mechanisms by which tau aggregates spread through the brain, and ways to prevent spread, to generate an understanding of how best to create disease-relevant assays.
Person criteria
The successful candidate will hold, or be close to obtaining, a PhD in biological science.
Experience in molecular/cellular neurobiology, especially of the pathogenic processes underlying Alzheimer's and Frontotemporal dementia linked to tau, developing and implementing cell-based models and assays suitable for compound/biologic agent/siRNA library screening, and cell-based phenotypic screening with imaging and molecular endpoints is essential.
Knowledge of data quality control, data analyses using appropriate software tools, and data interpretation, a proven level of technical skill in assessing tau or other disease associated proteins, excellent oral and written communication and inter-personal skills, and a commitment to working ethically, legally and with integrity are also required.
Appointment at Grade 7 is dependent upon having been awarded a PhD; if this is not the case, initial appointment will be at research assistant Grade 6B (salary £31,965 - £33,194 per annum) with payment at Grade 7 being backdated to the date of final submission of the PhD thesis.If the PhD has not yet been granted, the final accepted version of the thesis must have been submitted to the degree-granting university by the start date.
If you have any queries regarding the application process, please contact Miss E Bertram, HR Manager, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, 23 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG (email: ion.hradmin@ucl.ac.uk).
For informal enquiries about the role, please contact Karen Duff (email: k.duff@ucl.ac.uk).