Senior Lecturer in Human Model System

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.

The Role
Newcastle University seeks to appoint an outstanding and ambitious translational scientist at Senior Lecturer level to establish and lead a world-class interdisciplinary research programme focused on mechanistic discovery and therapeutic development using advanced experimental human systems, including organoids, assembloids, induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models, bioengineered platforms and related translational technologies.

You will bring a strong track record of research excellence and external funding success and will build an internationally recognised programme that bridges fundamental biology with therapeutic translation.

You will join one of the world’s leading centres for Lewy body dementia research, recently awarded the Queen Elizabeth Prize for its internationally recognised excellence and impact in dementia and neurodegenerative disease. Newcastle combines expertise spanning translational neuroscience, neuropathology, neurology, psychiatry, bioengineering, computational biology, biomarker science and experimental medicine within a uniquely integrated translational ecosystem. Combined with deeply phenotyped patient cohorts, significant brain tissue resources and world leading clinical trials infrastructure, this provides an exceptional platform for integrating advanced human model systems with biomarker discovery and experimental medicine to accelerate translational discovery.

The post forms part of Newcastle’s strategic investment in translational dementia research and aligns closely with major ambitions around experimental medicine, precision neuroscience and the development of next-generation therapies for Lewy body dementia.

Areas of particular interest include:

• Lewy body dementia (including dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson’s disease dementia)
• Neuroimmune and glial mechanisms
• Protein aggregation and propagation biology
• Blood-brain barrier and cellular interactions
• Therapeutic target identification and validation
• Translational drug development pipelines
• Enabling technologies e.g. spatial and single-cell technologies; gene editing and CRISPR approaches; microfluidic platforms; multicellular human systems etc.

Applicants are not expected to have expertise across all these areas but should demonstrate a clear vision for how advanced human model systems can transform mechanistic understanding and therapeutic discovery in neurodegeneration.

The University has developed an Academic Job Summary Guidance document which summarises the range of activities that academic colleagues may be expected to perform.

Please direct informal enquiries to Professor John-Paul Taylor at john-paul.taylor@newcastle.ac.uk.

Please note that, in order to commence in the role, a medical pre-screening will be required.

The post is full-time and permanent.

The University is committed to supporting ambitious research leaders through:

• access to outstanding interdisciplinary infrastructure;
• collaborative translational ecosystems spanning discovery to clinical application;
• opportunities for strategic leadership development;
• and a supportive environment for career progression and programme development.

Start up package:

• 1 PhD studentship (in exceptional cases can be converted to a post-doc for two years).
• £5k per year running costs for 3 years.

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