Research Fellow - RNA Therapy

About us

The mission of the UCL GOS Institute of Child Health is to maximise and advocate for the holistic health of all children, young people and the adults they will become, through world-class research, education and public engagement. The UCL GOS ICH, together with its clinical partner Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, forms the largest concentration of children’s health research outside North America. The 2024-29 GOS ICH strategy focuses on its five scientific programmes. GOS ICH’s activities include active engagement with children and families, to ensure that our work is relevant and appropriate to their needs. The Institute offers world-class education and training across a wide range of teaching and life learning programmes which address the needs of students and professional groups who are interested in and undertaking work relevant to child health. GOS ICH holds an Athena SWAN Charter Gold Award.

About the role

The Zhou Laboratory at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health is dedicated to developing Nucleic Acid Therapeutics (NAT) for genetic disorders. We are seeking to appoint a highly enthusiastic postdoctoral research fellow to strengthen our research team on developing peptide conjugated NAT that can exert cell type specific delivery in skeletal muscle, to facilitate the development of NAT for congenital muscular dystrophies. The successful applicant is expected to have strong knowledge in NAT drug development, preclinical validation in different model systems (cellular and animal), experience in receptor and ligand binding assay, peptide and linker chemistry, synthesis and conjugation, cell and molecular biology. Experience working with animal is highly desirable. The successful applicant will join a leading international research team led by Professor Haiyan Zhou, and will have the great opportunity to collaborate with other internationally leading research and clinical teams in the field, including the Dubowtiz Neuromuscular Centre, Nucleic Acid Therapeutic Accelerator (NATA) and the Bönnemann Lab at NIH.

About you

You are a Postdoctoral researcher with a PhD in Biomedical Science or equivalent. Or you are in the process of PhD dissertation submission, then the initial appointment will be at Research Assistant grade 6B with payment at Grade 7 once the PhD is awarded. You have a strong knowledge of cell and molecular biology, experienced in peptide and linker chemistry, synthesis and conjugation, ligand-receptor binding assay, cell-type specific drug delivery using both cellular and animal models, or RNA-targeted drug development. Experience in in vivo animal studies is highly desirable. In addition to conducting the research, you will be involved in reporting the progress of the research to the funders of this grant on a monthly basis, meeting milestones, coordinating with collaborators, as well as communicating the r esults in scientific presentations.

What we offer

Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce. You can read more about our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion here : https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion/ If you have any queries regarding the application process, please contact Madhur Sharma on quoting job reference

Advert reference: B02-08719

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