Postdoctoral Fellow - Li Lab

Location: The Francis Crick Institute, Midland Road, London

Short summary

This is a joint collaborative project between Vivian Li Laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute and Thomas Sheahan from Oncology AstraZeneca. This is a full-time position based at the Crick with occasional collaborative visit at AZ.

Dr Li’s laboratory investigates the molecular regulation of intestinal stem cell and cancer, focusing on WNT signalling, a molecular pathway contributinRg to virtually every developmental decision in the lifetime of an organism and is hyperactivated in nearly all colorectal cancer (CRC) to promote cancer cell growth.

Dr Sheahan is a senior research scientist in the Target Validation team within AstraZeneca’s Oncology Bioscience department. The team plays a key role in identifying and validating future cancer targets across tumour types, including in the key strategic area of CRC, utilizing techniques including interactomics to aid in target discovery.

Key Responsibilities

The purpose of this role is to screen for tumour-specific Wnt drug targets by exploring differential CTNNB1 transcriptional interactomes using unbiased proteomics approaches.

In this project, some of the specific techniques include but are not limited to:

• 3D organoid culture derived from primary human and mouse intestine
• RIME (Rapid Immunoprecipitation Mass spectrometry of Endogenous proteins)
• ChIP-Seq (Chromatin Immunoprecipitation sequencing)
• ATAC-Seq (The assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with sequencing)
• CRISPR-targeting
• Animal handling 

The postholder will be responsible for:

• Liaising with collaborators to perform shared experiments
• Writing and contributing to the preparation of scientific manuscripts, reports, presentations and records of experimental plans and results
• Supervising and providing technical advice to more junior members of the team when appropriate 

Postdoctoral Fellows will lead their own projects, contribute to other projects on a collaborative basis (both in the lab and with external collaborators) and may guide PhD students in their research. 

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, Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, UCL, 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. 

• If you are interested in applying for this role, please apply via our website.
• The closing date for applications is 11/10/2024
• All offers of employment are subject to successful security screening and continuous eligibility to work in the United Kingdom.

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