Postdoctoral Research Assistant

 About the Role

Applicants are invited to join an exciting transdisciplinary team of bioengineers, climate scientists, clinical trialists and epidemiologists working together at Queen Mary across the School of Engineering and Materials Science, Blizard Institute, Wolfson Institute for Population Health, and in Zimbabwe at the Zvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research.

This project is funded by Wellcome and led by Prof Andrew Prendergast who is the Director of the Zvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research in Zimbabwe and has established clinical trials to improve healthy birth and growth. You will work under the supervision of Dr Tina Chowdhury at the Centre for Bioengineering in the School of Engineering and Materials Science, who has developed 3D models to target inflammatory pathways that are common in preterm birth (www.sems.qmul.ac.uk/staff/t.t.chowdhury).

Our goal is to better understand the pathogenesis of preterm birth which affects 13.4 million babies each year, making it the leading cause of death amongst children under five years old. You will join a transdisciplinary team of UK-Zimbabwe academics working towards understanding the complex interactions of how extreme heat affects pregnancy and preterm birth. Zimbabwe has one of the highest global preterm birth rates (32/1000 live births). Currently, there is a paucity of clinical interventions to prevent preterm birth in rural Zimbabwe. 

This project will utilize a human in vitro model representing the maternal-fetal interface to investigate the effects of heat stress on inflammatory mechanisms. You will evaluate the interactions using clinical biomarkers identified during pregnancy from women who live in Zimbabwe to discover whether heat amplifies inflammation leading to rupture and preterm birth.

About You

The candidate will have experience in mechanobiology and bioengineering. Cell imaging techniques include multiphoton, SAXS, or cell/molecular approaches to investigate inflammatory mechanisms in human placenta.

About the School

The Centre for Bioengineering will provide you with enthusiastic support to develop your academic career (www.sems.qmul.ac.uk/research/bioengineering).

About Queen Mary
At Queen Mary University of London, we believe that a diversity of ideas helps us achieve the previously unthinkable.

Throughout our history, we’ve fostered social justice and improved lives through academic excellence. And we continue to live and breathe this spirit today, not because it’s simply ‘the right thing to do’ but for what it helps us achieve and the intellectual brilliance it delivers.

Our reformer heritage informs our conviction that great ideas can and should come from anywhere. It’s an approach that has brought results across the globe, from the communities of east London to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

We continue to embrace diversity of thought and opinion in everything we do, in the belief that when views collide, disciplines interact, and perspectives intersect, truly original thought takes form.

Benefits
In return, we offer 30 days’ leave per annum, access to a pension scheme, a season ticket loan scheme and competitive salaries. We also offer enhanced family friendly leave, and an on-site nursery at the Mile End campus. You will also work with a friendly team, with personal development opportunities.

Queen Mary’s commitment to our diverse and inclusive community is embedded in our appointments processes. Reasonable adjustments will be made at each stage of the recruitment process for any candidate with a disability.

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