Research Fellow

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).

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

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