Post-doctoral Research Associate

About Us

The  Atherton lab (King’s College London) is seeking an enthusiastic post-doctoral researcher to decipher how viruses manipulate the host cell cytoskeleton during infection and replication. The Atherton group is based in  Randall Centre for Cell & Molecular Biophysics, home to a diverse array of structural and cellular biology research, which is part of the  School of Basic & Biomedical Sciences. We sit in the  Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, which has a broad spectrum of research interests spanning fundamental biology, disease, and physiology. We are based at the Guy’s Campus of King’s College London situated in the heart of London. King’s is a founding member of the prestigious Russell Group of world-class, research-intensive universities.

About the role

An increasing number of viruses are emerging that encode cytoskeleton-binding or modulatory proteins. The core aim of this role will be determining how viruses manipulate host cell cytoskeletons to enhance their replicative capabilities.

The core techniques used will be single-particle cryo-EM and in situ cryo-electron tomography, with support from classical cell biology, biochemistry and molecular biology methodologies.

The cryo-EM research group at KCL is fast-growing and the university are investing heavily in the technique. We have access to excellent cryo-EM facilities, including an on-site autoloading JEOL cryoARM200 + K3 direct electron detector and a state-of-the-art Titan Krios electron microscope housed at the Crick Institute.

The successful applicant should have a demonstrable passion for revealing fundamental molecular mechanisms and hold significant experience in protein expression/purification, structural biology and cell culture. Experience in cryo-EM is essential and experience in in situ cryo-ET, fluorescence microscopy and an understanding of cytoskeletal biology and virology would be advantageous.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed-term contract until 30 June 2028 starting no sooner than 1st July 25.

This is a laboratory-based role and as such it needs to be performed on site for roughly 80% of the time, but there will be opportunities to work remotely for roughly 20% of the time, for example when processing data or preparing manuscripts and presentations.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

• PhD qualified in relevant subject area *
• Experience in cryo-electron microscopy/structural biology sample preparation and data collection
• Proficiency in Linux command line usage and cryo-EM processing software
• Experience in prokaryotic (E.coli) cell culture
• Experience in eukaryotic (e.g. HEK293T cells and/or insect cell systems) cell culture
• Experience in basic molecular biology and biochemistry techniques
• Experience in protein expression and purification methods
• Good understanding of structural and molecular biology and biochemistry

* Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6. 

Desirable criteria

• Experience in cellular cryo-electron tomography sample preparation and data collection
• Experience in cellular cryo-electron tomography processing pipelines
• Experience in light/fluorescence microscopy and/or correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM)
• Understanding of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton and/or virology
• General proficiency in computing, including an understanding of high-performance computing clusters

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