Postdoctoral Training Fellow - Chromosome Replication : London, United Kingdom

Postdoctoral Training Fellow

Chromosome Replication

This is a full-time, fixed term position for four years on Crick Terms and Conditions of Employment.
Salary is competitive with benefits.

Context

The Francis Crick Institute (the Crick) is a partnership between the Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK (CRUK), the Wellcome Trust, University College London (UCL), Imperial College London and King’s College London. It is a registered charity whose purpose is to conduct biomedical research into all aspects of human health and disease.

The institute will be a world-leading centre of biomedical research and innovation. It will promote connections between researchers and disciplines and between academic institutions, healthcare organisations and businesses. Dedicated to research excellence, the institute will have the scale, vision and expertise to tackle the most challenging scientific questions underpinning health and disease. It will be world-class with a strong national role — training scientists and developing ideas for public good. On 1 April 2015, staff from the London Research Institute (CRUK) and National Institute for Medical Research (MRC) transferred to the Crick to form a fully functional research institute on four sites. In 2016, the Crick will move to a single new, purpose-built research centre in St. Pancras which will house some 1,500 staff.

We are recruiting a Postdoctoral Training Fellow (PTF) to the Chromosome Replication Laboratory. The successful applicant will design and carry out an independent research project on the biochemistry of DNAreplication in a highly interactive and dynamic research group comprising other PTFs, Ph.D. students and permanent support staff.

Organisation

Dr Diffley’s laboratory focuses on the regulation and mechanism of eukaryotic DNA replication.

Research techniques used in the laboratory include Biochemical reconstitution of chromosome replication with purified proteins and yeast cell cycle analysis.

The research aims to understand how DNA replication initiates and how initiation is controlled and will contribute to the research funded by a Wellcome Senior Investigator Award grant.

Objectives

Postdoctoral Training Fellows are expected to lead their own projects, contribute to other projects on a collaborative basis (both in the lab and with external collaborators) and guide PhD students in their research. The ability to work in a team is essential.

Specific objectives will include, but not be limited to:

• Understanding how protein kinases trigger the initiation of DNA replication
• Understanding how signals from multiple protein kinases are integrated into a binary decision of whether to fire an origin or not; and to understand how the temporal replication programme is executed.

Person Specification

The post holder should embody and demonstrate our core Crick values: Bold, Imaginative, Open, Dynamic and Collegial, in addition to the following:

Essential

• PhD in yeast cell cycle or biochemistry or in the final stages of PhD submission
• Good knowledge and experience in analysing budding yeast cell cycle
• Track record of writing papers as evidenced by publications or submitted manuscripts in referred journals
• Evidence of data presentation at scientific meetings
• Experience of experimental design
• Ability to work independently and also capable of interacting within a group