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Postdoctoral Training Fellow

Developmental and Computational Biology

This is a full-time, fixed term position for 14 months 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 looking for a wet-lab based, postdoctoral researcher to join the Gilchrist/Smith laboratories at the Crick. The role is to undertake basic research into vertebrate gene expression regulation and variability in early development. The work will most likely be done using the Xenopus model system.

Organisation

This role will be pivotal in delivering aspects of the research programmes of the Gilchrist and Smith laboratories at the Francis Crick Institute. The post holder will report to one or both of the two principle investigators, and will work alongside other members of their laboratories. In addition the post holder will have a close relationship with the two PhD students currently funded by the network and studying in these labs, and will provide support and expertise where required and appropriate.

Objectives

The purpose of this position is to further the research interests of the Gilchrist/Smith laboratories at the Francis Crick Institute in developmental and computational biology in the context of the EU funded DevCom network. We are interested in understanding the regulation of gene expression in early vertebrate development from the onset of zygotic transcription through gastrulation, and will define one or more projects through discussion with the successful candidate. Where these projects lead to peer reviewed publication the post holder will be expected to be first (or co-first) author. The post holder will also be expected to participate in relevant network activities, such as attending workshops, network progress meetings and the final symposium.
Specific objectives will include, but not be limited to:

• Participate in defining appropriate research project(s) within the wider scope of the network in discussion with members of the Smith and Gilchrist labs. 
• Design and perform appropriate experiments to further the ends of these research projects.
• Organise analysis of any high throughput sequence data generated in pursuit of the experimental goals of the project(s). This may be performed by the post holder, or organised by him/her to be done in collaboration with other members of the laboratories.
• Provide support and advice as requested and where appropriate: to DevCom students both in the Gilchrist and Smith labs, and as occasion arises in the other partner laboratories in the network. 
• Make presentations on his/her research project(s) at internal lab meetings, network meetings and symposia, internal Crick seminars and other external conferences as appropriate.
• Write papers for peer reviewed journals on completed research projects.

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

• Experience of working with vertebrate model systems.
• Strong background in relevant experimental techniques, including but not limited to: gene knock-down and knock-out methods, high-throughput sequencing library preparation, quantitative PCR, immuno-precipitation based assays, and methods for gene expression localisation.
• An established interest in and understanding of developmental biology.
• Ability to work independently on day-to-day basis.
• Good communication skills in both formal and informal presentations of research material, and in writing about science to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Will have likely published peer-reviewed research as first (or co-first) author in mainstream journals.

Desirable

• Experience of performing or commissioning computational analysis of large scale data sets, particularly of gene expression and ChIP data.
• An understanding of computational methods appropriate to analysis of large scale data sets, and related statistical requirements for establishing confidence in experimental data.