Research Associate to Build a Multi-Spectral Focused Ultrasound Array and Engine for Delivering Drugs to the Brain

Location: South Kensington City

Contract: Full time and Fixed Term 48 months

Job Summary

We are seeking a Research Associate to build a multi-spectral focused ultrasound array and its electronics driving engine. This device would be used to perform "mosaic neuropharmacology"—a novel method for manipulating neural circuits across the brain noninvasively in both space and time. This recently funded project will be the most advanced tool for brain-targeted material delivery, with incredible potential for treating neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.

Duties and responsibilities

You will be constructing devices that can focus and steer an ultrasound beam across ex vivo human skulls while simultaneously imaging (and therefore monitor) the procedure. This involves rapid prototyping of focused ultrasound arrays and electronics driving engines for use in in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo experiments. You will work closely with another PhD student with a computational skillset who will help design the array and algorithms that your array and engine would implement. Together, you will be creating next generation noninvasive microsurgical devices.

Your work will be within a larger research programme involving 8 principal investigators, 4 post-doctoral researchers, and 3 PhD students from Imperial College London, King’s College London, University of Arizona, and the University of Michigan.

The programme aims to build a noninvasive technology for precisely delivering distinct drugs to targeted brain regions with exceptional spatial and temporal control. Our approach will engineer particles capable of carrying drug payloads that release only in response to specific remote signals. Your device will direct these signals to specific brain regions, enabling precise targeting. We will validate this platform in rats and rabbits, demonstrating the controlled release of multiple drugs to different areas of the brain. Using these technical innovations, we will perform "mosaic neuropharmacology"—a novel method for manipulating neural circuits across the brain noninvasively in both space and time. This platform will represent the most advanced tool for brain-targeted material delivery, offering potential for neuroscientists and neurologists to explore and treat neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders more effectively.

Essential requirements

• Exceptional ability to create innovative and high-quality focused ultrasound arrays and driving engines.
• Excellence with analogue and/or digital circuits.
• Speed in prototyping and adjusting the prototype to feedback.
• An individual with self-initiative to drive the project forward.
• An excellent team player who can work in an intense milestone-driven research programme.
• A hardworking individual motivated by the vision and mission of our research programme.

Further Information

This is a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary research at the interface of microfluidics, neurotechnology, non-invasive ultrasound and diseases of the brain. Your work would fit within a larger research programme involving 8 principal investigators, 4 post-doctoral researchers, and 3 PhD students from Imperial College London, King’s College London, University of Arizona, and the University of Michigan.

Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as Research Assistant within the salary range £43,003 - £46,297 per annum.

This job is part of an Advanced Research + Invention Agency-funded project.

If you require any further details on the role please contact:

Sam Au at s.au@imperial.ac.uk

Closing Date: 06/03/25

To apply, please click the 'APply' button, above.

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