Research Associate (fixed-term)

About the role

This post has arisen because of an EPSRC grant awarded to Dr Scott Lovell and is essential to a programme of work that aims to develop covalent macrocycle inhibitors for difficult to drug cancer proteins (Nat. Biotechnol. 2021, 4, 490).

Treatment options for many cancer patients remain limited as there are no known inhibitors for most tumour-associated proteins. 

Many of these proteins are deemed ‘undruggable’ as they lack binding pockets that can be targeted with small molecules. 

Working with members of the Lovell lab, you will help to address this unmet clinical need by developing ultra-large libraries of encoded covalent macrocycles for screening against cancer proteins. 

You will achieve this by using a powerful combination of techniques including solid-phase peptide synthesis, molecular encoding, robotics, chemical proteomics and structural biology.

About you

A PhD in Chemistry/Chemical biology (or a very closely related discipline) is essential, as is experience and demonstrated competence in solid phase peptide synthetic methodology or peptide drug discovery. 

You will also have experience with HPLC, LC-MS or LC-MS/MS method development and an active interest in covalent drug discovery and cancer research.

Experience with display technologies, mass spectrometry-based chemical proteomics techniques (i.e. ABPP), proteomics software or development of bioinformatic analysis pipelines is desirable.

As this post includes some laboratory management duties, you must be highly organised and have excellent communication and teamwork skills. 

Critically, you must be an independent worker and a problem solver as you will be supervising undergraduate students and training junior members of the lab.

Further information

The University of Bath ranks 6th in the Guardian University Guide 2024. 

Our campus is surrounded by beautiful countryside and is walking distance to the UNESCO world heritage city of Bath, creating an excellent environment in which to work. 

Research in the Department of Life Sciences is highly diverse, spanning drug discovery science and healthcare to evolutionary biology and biodiversity, achieving a rank of world leading or internationally competitive in the REF2021 assessment.

This is a full-time fixed-term contract for 36 months, with potential for further extension. For an informal discussion about the role please contact Dr Lovell (sdl35@bath.ac.uk), however, please submit your application via the University website.

As a member of Research Staff at the University of Bath, you will be encouraged to take up a minimum of 10 days professional development pro rata per year.

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