UK DRI Research Fellow - Strand, London, WC2R 2LS

UK DRI Research Fellow - Strand, London, WC2R 2LS

About us:

Neurodegenerative disorders are the greatest health challenge of our century. To date there is no way to prevent it or even slow its progression, and there is an urgent need to fill the knowledge gap in our basic understanding of the diseases that cause it.

The UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) is the biggest UK initiative driving forward research to fill this gap.

We are a globally leading multidisciplinary research institute of 850 staff investigating the spectrum of neurodegenerative disorders causing dementia, with laboratory-based research groups located at University College London, the University of Cambridge, Cardiff University, Edinburgh University, Imperial College London, and Kings College London.

Researchers at the UK DRI at Kings use innovative approaches to explore the biological mechanisms involved in neurodegenerative diseases. Their goal is to defeat dementia by uncovering vital new knowledge that will lead to the design of smarter diagnostics and effective treatments. The team aim to understand the fundamental biological processes involved in dementia at a molecular level and to use that knowledge to design new ways to diagnose and treat disease more precisely.

Join the forefront of dementia research at the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) at Kings College London, where our interdisciplinary research community is dedicated to understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). As part of the Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience, the UK DRI at Kings undertakes innovative cellular, molecular and translational research to advance our understanding of neurodegeneration and develop new therapeutic approaches.

About the role:

Professor Jernej Ule is seeking a Research Fellow to join a team working on the systems biology of protein-RNA assemblies using deep learning, with particular emphasis in understanding the disruptive effects of cis- and trans-acting mutations in RNA-binding proteins and non-coding RNA regions that are associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Professor Ules research programme focuses on transcriptomic approaches to study RNP assembly and its defects in neurodegenerative diseases.

The Research Fellow will work on computational studies of protein-RNA interactions, including developing new techniques and produce relevant publications.

The successful candidate should have experience in large-scale analyses of protein-RNA interactions. Experience applying deep learning to genomic sequence data, including fine-tuning of pretrained genomic foundation models for predictive modelling of regulatory function. Prior experience in analyses of data interrogating protein-RNA interactions (CLIP) and RNA structure is essential. You will be a dynamic, creative, and motivated scientist interested in pursuing questions deeply. You will use a range of methods for next generation RNA sequencing, and to integrate data from complementary methods, including imaging and proteomics.

The Ule Lab is highly collaborative. You will join a multidisciplinary team on the Denmark Hill Campus with experience in:

• Designing and performing experiments
• Developing technical advances
• Performing data analysis
• Presenting the results
• Writing up manuscripts to be submitted to peer-review journals

This is a full -time post (35 hours per week) and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 30/11/2027 with scope to extend the role based on future funding.

Research staff at Kings are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers , applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade 7. Visit the Centre for Research Staff Development for more information.

About you:

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

You should not apply if you do not meet all the essential criteria outlined below.

Essential criteria

1. PhD awarded in PhD in Computational biology or a related discipline
2. Previous experience applying protein-RNA interaction mapping with CLIP to identify combinatorial regulatory principles.
3. Demonstrable experience integrating multiple layers of data (such as CLIP, RNAseq, riboseq, RNA structure probing, Nanopore long-read sequencing data, proteomics, imaging) to characterise regulatory mechanisms.
4. Expertise in collaborative working with wet-lab scientists, thereby contributing to the design and interpretation of ongoing experiments and optimization of new experimental methods.
5. Development of new software, and contribution to benchmarking and improvement of existing software, dedicated towards analysis and interpretation of data interrogating protein-RNA assembly and function.
6. Experience with generating Nextflow Pipelines.
7. Excellent written communication skillsdemonstratedby an outstandingpublicationtrack record on post-transcriptional regulation mechanisms, also in the context of neurodegenerative diseases and contributionstothegrant writing processesthatevidenceexperience in leadingindependentresearch projects.
8. Previous experience supervising or co-supervising students, and co-ordinating the work of other researchers.

Desirable criteria

1. Demonstratable experience in collaborating with other research teams by contributing to long-term project management.
2. Experience delivering bioinformatics training.
3. Experience securing independent fellowship funding.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.