Research Assistant/Associate in Tinnitus Research

Salary:

Research Assistant: £32,296 to £33,882 per annum, pro rata

Research Associate: £34,866 per annum, pro rata

Company description:

We are a world class research-intensive university. We deliver teaching and learning of the highest quality. We play a leading role in economic, social and cultural development of the North East of England. Attracting and retaining high-calibre people is fundamental to our continued success.

Job description:

Your Role

You will conduct, in its entirety, a clinical trial of the effect of combined sound therapy and electrical brain stimulation in people who have recently developed tinnitus, with the primary outcomes being short-term and long-term reduction in perceived loudness of tinnitus.

Whilst supported by a supervisory and collaborative team, you will take charge of, and run, the trial, performing all activities including ethics applications, writing of study protocols, recruitment, data collection, follow-up and support of volunteers, data analysis and presentation/publication of results.

The Project

The project is a clinical trial combining two types of safe and non-invasive treatment for people who have newly developed tinnitus (i.e. with ‘acute' tinnitus), i.e. persistent sound in the ear(s) that does not correspond to an external sound source. This is a common condition, affecting one in eight adults. For some, it is a source of long-term distress and disability. Currently, it lacks effective treatments to silence or significantly quieten the sound. Tinnitus is often likened to pain, and shares a number of brain mechanisms. Whilst there are effective treatments to reduce or eliminate pain, these are most effective early in the course of pain, whilst long-term (i.e. ‘chronic') pain is much less responsive to these treatments.

This project works on the hypothesis that treatments for tinnitus will be more effective if given early in the course of the condition rather than after many months or years. It focuses on two treatments, each of which has been shown to have significant but modest benefits when given to people with chronic tinnitus. The aim is to establish whether the combined benefit of both treatments, given early, is sufficient to meaningfully change the course of the condition long-term.

One treatment is a form of sound therapy developed by Dr William Sedley's group. You will learn to apply this, and target it to each individual's tinnitus based on their hearing and tinnitus frequency.

The other treatment is transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), where a weak electrical current is applied to the scalp using saline-soaked electrodes. This is applied to two locations on the head, in sequence, whilst the participant listens to the sound therapy sounds.

The course of treatment is approximately two sessions per week, over a period of months.

This post is fixed term until 31 December 2026 at 28 hours per week. The second year will be authorised by the funder subject to a satisfactory first year progress report.

For informal enquiries contact: Dr William Sedley: william.sedley@newcastle.ac.uk

Find out more about the Faculty of Medical Sciences here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/

Find out more about our Research Institutes here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/research/institutes/

As part of our commitment to career development for research colleagues, the University has developed 3 levels of research role profiles. These profiles set out firstly the generic competences and responsibilities expected of role holders at each level and secondly the general qualifications and experiences needed for entry at a particular level.

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