Research Assistant / Fellow

About us

Our mission is to maximise and advocate for the holistic health of all children, young people and the adults they will become, through world-class research, education and public engagement. The UCL GOS ICH, together with its clinical partner Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, forms the largest concentration of children’s health research outside North America. The 2024-29 GOS ICH strategy focuses on its five scientific programmes. GOS ICH’s activities include active engagement with children and families, to ensure that our work is relevant and appropriate to their needs. GOS ICH generates the funding for our research by setting out our proposals in high quality applications to public, charitable and industrial funding bodies and disseminates the results of our research by publication in the medical and scientific literature, to clinicians, policy makers and the wider public. The Institute offers world-class education and training across a wide range of teachin g and life learning programmes which address the needs of students and professional groups who are interested in and undertaking work relevant to child health. GOS ICH holds an Athena SWAN Charter Gold Award.

About the role

A Research Assistant / Fellow position, funded for up to 24 months in the first instance, is available to join Professor David Long’s Kidney Development and Disease Group. This post involves collaborating with Dr Tanzina Chowdhury (paediatric oncologist) and other clinicians and surgeons at Great Ormond Street Hospital to work on a Little Princess Trust funded grant to understand how lymphatics might modulate cancer growth and spread in the setting of Wilms tumour: the most common childhood kidney tumour. The project involves: (i) using single-cell RNA-sequencing to generate a publicly accessible atlas of cellular and molecular interactions between the lymphatic vasculature and tumour cells or other cells within the microenvironment of Wilms tumour and other childhood renal cancers, before spatially mapping these using 3D imaging; (ii) utilise tumour-lymphatic organoids as a screening platform to assess how candidate signalling molecules affect growth and invasiveness of Wi lms tumour, and (iii) Perform a pilot study of the prognostic relevance of lymphatic vascular-derived molecular signals in an international clinical cohort of children with kidney cancer. The salary offered in this role will be at grade 6B (Research Assistant) £38,357 - £41,005 pa or at grade 7 (Research Fellow) £43,124 - £45,372 pa depending on qualifications and experience.

About you

The post-holder will hold a BSc or equivalent in a relevant biomedical subject. The post would be suitable for those looking to navigate the bridge between a BSc and further study, such as a PhD, or a medical degree. Alternatively, applicants can already hold an MSc, PhD, medical degree or equivalent. Experience of undertaking research in a biomedical setting, carrying out literature searches, critical appraisal of research papers, fundamental molecular and cellular research skills (for example tissue culture, FACS analysis, histology) are essential. Experience in either cancer biology, stem/cell organoid techniques, single-cell sequencing, vascular, renal, or developmental biology would be desirable.

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