Postdoctoral Research Assistant - UOD1994

We are recruiting for an exceptional individual to join us as Senior Research Fellow within our Division of Systems Medicine. The successful candidate will work within the Consortium Against Pain Inequalities (CAPE) to explore the relationship between early life adversity and chronic pain. CAPE is funded by the by UKRI, Versus Arthritis and Eli Lily Advanced Pain Discovery Platform (APDP). The work will involve completing ongoing data collection in young adults with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) who have either no/low pain or persistent high pain. This will facilitate future analysis of the links between early life adversity and pain.

Working with the group led by Prof Tim Hales, the successful candidate will be based at UCL and at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London to complete data collection in this cohort. This involves questionnaire, sensory (using Quantitative Sensory Testing), and brain neuroimaging (using Magnetic Resonance Imaging) data. In addition, the successful candidate will pre-process and de-identify all data, update the study database, and securely store data in relevant repositories.

This is a fixed-term appointment for 4 months. Given the short duration of this post, the purpose of which is to complete an ongoing project, we are inviting applications from individuals who already have proven experience of working in clinical settings using the data collection and processing methods required, and a strong understanding of clinical pain research.

Your priorities will include:

• Liaising with our clinical collaborators at UCLH, the GOSH radiography department, and study participants, to enable booking study appointments.
• Performing standardised QST and collect questionnaire (patient-reported outcome measures) and brain MRI data during 4-hr study sessions in young adults with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.
• Data pre-processing, de-identification, and entry into the study database.
• Secure back-up of data and storage in relevant repositories, as required.
• Working alongside other members of the CAPE research group.
• Preparing progress reports for presentation at monthly CAPE meetings and other meetings, as required.

Who we're looking for:

• BSc and PhD in neuroscience, psychology, or related field.
• Proven experience in performing standardised QST in clinical populations is required.
• Experience in handling, preprocessing, & analysing brain MRI data.
• Experience working with vulnerable clinical populations and within clinical settings.
• Publications as first or significant contributing author in internationally refereed journals.

The University of Dundee is a signatory of the Researcher Development Concordat and is committed to enhancing the research environment and culture. Engagement and support of activities which assist the researcher development agenda at the University is therefore essential.

For further information about this position please contact Prof Tim Hales at t.q.hales@dundee.ac.uk.

The diversity of our staff and students helps to make the University of Dundee a UK university of choice for undergraduate, postgraduate and distance learning. Family friendly policies, staff networks for BME, Disabled and LGBT staff, membership of Athena SWAN, the ECU Race Equality Charter and Stonewall as well a full range of disability services, create an enjoyable and inclusive place to work.

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