英国神经科学/激酶生物化学博士后职位

Short summary

A postdoctoral fellowship supported by a Francis Crick Institute - AstraZeneca joint project grant, is available in Dr Sila Ultanir’s lab at the Francis Crick Institute in collaboration with Dr Nick Brandon in AstraZeneca. The postdoc will lead an exciting project on discovering novel substrates of a kinase associated with psychiatric disorders. He/she will use chemical genetic kinase substrate identification methods and global phosphoproteomics via mass spectrometry to determine substrate candidates. He/she will use phosphospecific antibodies to validate the substrate candidates in cells and subsequently investigate cellular functions of phosphoregulations in neuronal cell biology.

Project scope

Ultanir lab studies kinases that play important roles in neuronal development and nervous system function. We investigate how cellular processes such as trafficking and microtubule dynamics are regulated by kinases in neuronal dendrites. We use chemical genetics, mass spectrometry and biochemistry methods to determine and validate novel kinase substrates to decipher the underlying signalling mechanisms (Ultanir et al. Neuron 2012, Ultanir et al. Neuron 2014). We use knockout mouse models to investigate kinase’s roles on neuronal function in vivo. We also recently generate phosphomutant mice, in which kinase substrates are mutated via CRISPR mediated gene editing to non-phosphorylatable forms in order to mimic loss of kinase function. We characterize our mouse models in detail by electrophysiology and imaging methods to determine the role of kinase - substrate signalling.

Dr Brandon is Chief Scientist in the Neuroscience group at AstraZeneca. His group is focussed on developing new medicines for neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders. In particular he has had a long term interest in molecular targets which regulate neuronal excitability and synaptic plasticity such as a range of ion-channels, receptors, transporters and protein kinases and phosphatases. Of the kinases several have been very poorly characterized with their repertoire of substrates unknown. The project will focus on these kinases and use biochemistry and chemical genetic methods to address this question. Candidates with experience in biochemistry and interest in neuronal synapse formation and function is encouraged to apply.

About us

The Francis Crick Institute is a biomedical discovery institute dedicated to understanding the fundamental biology underlying health and disease. Its work is helping to understand why disease develops and to translate discoveries into new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, infections, and neurodegenerative diseases.

An independent organisation, its founding partners are the Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, UCL (University College London), Imperial College London and King’s College London.

The Crick was formed in 2015, and in 2016 it moved into a new state-of-the-art building in central London which brings together 1500 scientists and support staff working collaboratively across disciplines, making it the biggest biomedical research facility under in one building in Europe.

The Francis Crick Institute will be world-class with a strong national role. Its distinctive vision for excellence includes commitments to collaboration; developing emerging talent and exporting it the rest of the UK; public engagement; and helping turn discoveries into treatments as quickly as possible to improve lives and strengthen the economy.