Research Associate in MR Physics

About us

Located in the heart of London, King’s is the hub of a global network of strong academic connections and collaboration, with prestigious international partnerships within and across disciplines – scientific and medical, social and creative. King’s is investing in the highest calibre of talent to drive the university forward to achieve its greatest potential. The very best from the United Kingdom and across the globe are invited to join King’s. We are looking for a strong commitment to teaching and research, to push the boundaries of knowledge, influence the future and create a lasting impact.

The successful applicant will be closely supervised by Dr Alkystis Phinikaridou and co-supervised by Prof René Botnar and Prof. Claudia Prieto at the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences (BMEIS) and will be part of a vibrant research team of PhD students and postdocs.

About the role

This exciting postdoctoral position is funded by a British Heart Foundation Project grant entitled “Molecular MRI signatures of fibrosis to detect heart failure and response to treatment”.  The research aims to answer the clinically important question whether molecular MR imaging can provide readouts for precision imaging of cardiac fibrosis to detect adverse cardiac remodelling, hearts at risk of failing and monitor therapeutic response. 

The candidate will work in an interdisciplinary team consisting of physicists, imaging biologists, chemists, and clinicians to develop novel MR imaging techniques for the non-invasive detection of cardiac fibrosis using new molecular imaging probes in preclinical models of heart failure. The research team is located at St Thomas´ Hospital in the Research Department of Cardiovascular Imaging which has access to 10 state-of-the-art clinical research scanners with field strengths varying from 0.55T, 1.5T, 3T to 7T. 

The specific aims of the post will be to:

• To devise and validate a heartrate-independent, motion-resilient and fast 3D free-running cardiac T1 mapping sequence with dictionary matching at a 3T clinical suitable for preclinical imaging.
• To closely collaborate with an imaging biologist to test and validate the newly developed protocol for accurate molecular imaging of cardiac fibrosis in rodent models of heart failure. 

This is a full time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract for 1.5 years.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria 

• PhD awarded (or near completion) in Engineering, Physics, Computer Sciences or similar*
• Experience in Magnetic Resonance Imaging physics
• Experience in Magnetic Resonance image pulse sequence development and image reconstruction
• Experience in MATLAB, Phyton, C++ or similar
• Practical experience in acquiring MRI data in phantoms
• Ability to present scientific research in the form of papers, posters and oral presentations, conduct a detailed review of recent literature and organise own work with minimal supervision
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary research team, relying on and supporting others effectively
• Willingness to work out of normal working hours (including weekends) if the requirements of the project demand

Desirable criteria

• Practical experience in Magnetic Resonance pulse sequence development (Philips environment preferred)
• Practical experience in phantom, preclinical and/or human scanning with MR imaging
• Practical experience in a broad range of MRI techniques including CMR

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