Research Fellow in Cancer Virology and Radiotherapy

Are you an ambitious researcher looking for your next challenge? Do you have an established background in cancer biology, cancer virology or radiobiology? Are you keen to develop new skills in a range of approaches? Do you thrive, working across disciplines with discovery and clinical researchers? Do you want to further your career in one of the UKs leading research intensive Universities?

Applications are invited for a CRUK-funded research fellow position, to understand the mechanisms by which the human papillomavirus (HPV) causes anal cancer. This exciting, timely and transformative research project has the potential to change clinical practice in how we treat these debilitating cancers. Together, we will characterise the key cellular factors underpinning the response to radiotherapy in these cancers to identify novel factors for therapeutic intervention. This research project is a collaboration between experts in HPV (Macdonald) and radiotherapy (Sebag-Montefiore, Samson), combining biochemical, genomic and virological approaches to tackle an important outstanding clinical question on the role of HPV infection on the response to therapy. We have already obtained biopsies from patients that have responded to treatment compared with those who have since relapsed or never responded and will perform RNA-sequencing to look for distinct transcriptional profiles.

You should have a PhD (or close to completion) in virology/cancer biology/radiotherapy biology or a closely allied discipline and experience in cancer and cell biology.

What we offer in return

• 26 days holiday plus approx.16 Bank Holidays/University Closure Days (including Christmas)
• Generous pension scheme plus life assurance
• Health and Wellbeing: Discounted staff membership options at The Edge, our state-of-the-art Campus gym.
• Personal Development: Access to courses run by our Organisational Development & Professional Learning team.

The Macdonald group uses cell biology and biochemical techniques to answer important questions about how DNA tumour viruses perform their infection cycles, and in doing so, we hope to understand how they cause disease and ultimately develop strategies to prevent growth and thus disease. Our group is an international authority in DNA tumour virology, we regularly publish in leading journals (e.g. PMID: 38987584, PMID: 37443304, PMID: 33627786; PMID: 35194151; PMID: 33303976) and present our work at national and international meetings. We are collegiate, collaborative, and believe in people-centric working. We work across disciplines and this project is funded as part of a £2.95 million investment by CRUK into the Leeds Radiotherapy Centre of Excellent (RadNet). The CRUK RadNet is a network of centres of excellence and state-of-the-art facilities working with the research community to tackle the major challenges in radiobiology and radiation oncology.

Salary Requirements of the Skilled Worker Visa Route

Please note that this post may be suitable for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa route. First-time applicants might need to qualify for salary concessions. For more information: www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa.

For research and academic posts, we will consider eligibility under the Global Talent visa: www.gov.uk/global-talent

Advert information