Research Associate

Job description:

Are you interested in the fundamental biology of ageing, immunology and gut-brain interactions? Are you a team worker?

We are looking for an ambitious, self-motivated, resilient, team-oriented, pro-active, focused and organised scientist to join our team to deliver on our exciting, recently awarded Dunhill Medical Trust project grant entitled: "Determining the relative contribution of macrophage ageing to gut degeneration, systemic frailty and cognitive decline, using the zebrafish model").

This project will integrate a larger body of work in the lab, aiming to understand how specific changes in tissue-associated immunity with ageing contribute to age-associated dysfunction and disease, and identifying ways to ameliorate or prevent them, which tightly aligns with current University, UK and world-wide research focus.

If you are interested in the fundamental biology of ageing, immunity, stem cells and tissue-repair and how these can interact to contribute to age-associated dysfunction across multiple tissues, then this project is for you.

This is a 2 year position where you will have the unique opportunity to use a truly diverse combination of state-of-the-art techniques, which will set you apart for your scientific career development: from laser capture microdissection in tissue paraffin sections to isolate specific immune cells for phospho-proteomic analysis in young versus old animals; advanced microscopy; immuno and RNA in-situ -fluorescence and histo-pathology, to developing primary cell co-cultures and organoids, all the way to behaviour assays using zebrafish to assess impact on cognition.

We are a small, dynamic team. The PI, Dr. Catarina Henriques(link), is a Sir Henry Dale Research fellow, funded by the Wellcome Trust and The Royal Society, at the University of Sheffield. Before then, Catarina secured a Vice-chancellor’s Fellowship to start her independent lab. During her post-doc, funded by an independent Fellowship, Catarina was the first to establish that zebrafish ages in a telomerase dependent manner and has pioneered the in-depth molecular and histopathological characterisation of zebrafish telomerase-dependent ageing across a multitude of tissues (Plos Genetics 2012(link) and 2014(link)), establishing the techniques that are to be used in this project. Dr. Henriques' lab works at the interface of the Bateson Centre(link), of which she is part of the management committee, the MRC – Arthritis Research UK Centre for Integrated research into Musculoskeletal Ageing (CIMA(link)) and the Healthy Lifespan Institute (HELSI(link)) at the University of Sheffield, voted University of the year in 2024(link).

We’re one of the best not-for-profit organisations to work for in the UK. The University’s Total Reward Package includes a competitive salary, a generous Pension Scheme and annual leave entitlement, as well as access to a range of learning and development courses to support your personal and professional development.

We build teams of people from different heritages and lifestyles from across the world, whose talent and contributions complement each other to greatest effect. We believe diversity in all its forms delivers greater impact through research, teaching and student experience.

To find out what makes the University of Sheffield a remarkable place to work, watch this short film: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LblLk18zmo, and follow @sheffielduni and @ShefUniJobs on Twitter for more information.

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