Research Scientist

Where: The Charles Institute of Dermatology (https://www.ucd.ie/charles/ ), School of Medicine (https://www.ucd.ie/medicine/), University College Dublin, Ireland (https://www.ucd.ie/). The Charles is the only academic centre dedicated to cutaneous biology/dermatologic research on the island of Ireland.  

Project: Leveraging the melanoma-protected human hair follicle for insights into the control of pigment cell proliferation and apoptosis relevant to cutaneous melanoma.

Annual Salary: €58,578/year (approx. £52K/year or $69K/year)

Principal Investigator/Project Supervisor: Prof. Desmond J Tobin PhD, Director, Charles Institute of Dermatology, University College Dublin, Ireland. Tobin lab. with 5 PhD students (incl. one assigned to support this project) and 4 postdoctoral researchers.

Closing Date Feb 16, 2026.

Applications: CV and Letter of Motivation via the apply button above.

Project aim: To understand how melanocytes in the human hair follicle appear to resist melanoma-genesis. This is despite their participation in all cell dynamics stages (stem cell - proliferating cell - differentiating cell - senescing cell - to apoptosing cell. In this way, the follicular melanocyte location contrasts markedly with the epidermis, where melanocytes are uniquely prone to melanoma-genesis.

We aim to identify pathways of apoptosis in melanocytes and melanoma cells, by gaining much needed new insights into how melanocyte precursors of melanoma become unstable. We will utilise human skin samples from donors of geographic ancestry susceptible to melanoma [e.g., low(er)] pigmentation Irish donors).

The Research Scientist will drive this project together with Prof. Tobin and will be supported by a dedicated PhD student who will work on an aspect of this project. 

Mandatory Criteria that the Applicant should have include:

• PhD in Cell Biology/Biomedicine or similar field.
• Minimum of four years postdoctoral experience in human cancer biology.
• Minimum of four years postdoctoral experience in skin biology.
• Excellent wet-laboratory skills in cell/molecular biology-based assays (incl. mammalian primary cell culture; mono-culture, co-culture) relevant to the cell biology of human skin pigmentation
• Understanding of the cell biology of human skin pigmentation regulation.

Demonstrable track record in the following areas:

• Publications, as assessed by the norms of their discipline i.e. quality and impact of academic publisher, citations, ranking of journal publications etc.
• Supervision of students, including, where appropriate contributing to undergraduate project supervision and Master Dissertations on taught programmes.
• Research leadership in a research group or laboratory.
• Contribution to writing research proposals; submitted to peer-reviewed funding agencies.
• Capability to exercise independence in research 

Desirable Criteria that the applicant could have include:

• Postdoctoral experience in human melanoma cell biology
• Postdoctoral experience in human melanocyte cell biology
• Postdoctoral experience in human hair follicle biology research
• Experience in 3D Skin Models and other advanced in vitro/ex vivo models
• Gene silencing/knockdown (siRNA/CRISPR) in human skin cells.
• Immuno-gold TEM analysis in 2D melanocyte-Keratinocyte co-culture and in 3D skin/reconstructs. 

Informal enquiries: desmond.tobin@ucd.ie  Tel: +353-1-716 6282

Start date: As soon as possible after successful interview.

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