Postdoctoral Research Assistant

About the Role

Applicants are invited to join an exciting inter-disciplinary team of clinicians and scientists working together at Queen Mary across the Centre for Bioengineering, Blizard Institute, and in Zimbabwe at the Zvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research.

This project is funded by Medical Research Council and led by Prof Andrew Prendergast who is the Director of the Zvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research in Zimbabwe and has established clinical trials to improve healthy birth and growth. You will work under the supervision of Dr Tina Chowdhury at the School of Engineering and Materials Science, who has developed 3D models to target inflammatory pathways that are common in preterm birth (https://www.sems.qmul.ac.uk/staff/t.t.chowdhury).

Our goal is to better understand the pathogenesis of preterm birth which affects 13.4 million babies each year, making it the leading cause of death amongst children under five years old. You will join a transdisciplinary team of UK-Zimbabwe academics working towards understanding the complex interactions of why pregnant women who have HIV have more infections and inflammation leading to preterm birth. Zimbabwe has one of the highest global preterm birth rates (32/1000 live births). Currently, there is a paucity of clinical interventions to prevent preterm birth in women with HIV.

This project will utilize a human in vitro model representing the maternal-fetal interface to investigate the effects of HIV infection on inflammation and the types of bacteria that increases the risk of preterm birth. You will evaluate the interactions using clinical biomarkers identified during pregnancy to discover whether infection increases the inflammatory response leading to rupture and preterm birth.

About You

The candidate will have experience in infection, inflammation and mechanobiology. Cell imaging techniques include multiphoton, SAXS, or cell/molecular approaches to investigate inflammatory mechanisms in human placenta.

About the School

The Centre for Bioengineering will provide you with enthusiastic support to develop your academic career (https://www.sems.qmul.ac.uk/research/bioengineering/).

About Queen Mary

At Queen Mary University of London, we believe that a diversity of ideas helps us achieve the previously unthinkable.

Throughout our history, we’ve fostered social justice and improved lives through academic excellence. And we continue to live and breathe this spirit today, not because it’s simply ‘the right thing to do’ but for what it helps us achieve and the intellectual brilliance it delivers.

We continue to embrace diversity of thought and opinion in everything we do, in the belief that when views collide, disciplines interact, and perspectives intersect, truly original thought takes form.

Benefits

We offer competitive salaries, access to a generous pension scheme, 30 days’ leave per annum (pro-rata for part-time/fixed-term), a season ticket loan scheme and access to a comprehensive range of personal and professional development opportunities. In addition, we offer a range of work life balance and family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, and campus facilities.

Queen Mary’s commitment to our diverse and inclusive community is embedded in our appointments processes. Reasonable adjustments will be made at each stage of the recruitment process for any candidate with a disability. We are open to considering applications from candidates wishing to work flexibly.

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