Post-Doctoral Research Associate

Full-time (35 hours per week)

Fixed term from 1^st May 2025 and for 3 years

The Opportunity:

An exciting postdoctoral position is available to research the role of epigenetic dysregulation in carcinogenesis.

We are looking for a self-motivated, enthusiastic research fellow to join the laboratory of Dr Duncan Sproul at the University of Edinburgh’s Institute of Genetics and Cancer to understand the role of heterochromatin hypomethylation in carcinogenesis. This project is a close collaboration with Kevin Myant’s laboratory based within the same institute.

We have recently shown that the DNA methyltransferase DNMT3B is required to maintain heterochromatic DNA methylation in colorectal cancer cells (Taglini et al. 2024, EMBO Reports 25:1130, DOI: 10.1038/s44319-024-00061-5). Our new project will use this insight as a tool to understand the role of heterochromatin hypomethylation in colorectal carcinogenesis where DNMT3B is a tumour promoting gene (Lin et al 2006, Molecular and Cellular Biology 26:2976, DOI: 10.1128/MCB.26.8.2976-2983.2006).

The successful candidate will work in collaboration with both the Sproul and Myant laboratories as part of a successful multidisciplinary research team. This project will have a particular emphasis on the use of degron approaches in colorectal organoids and the analysis of epigenomic data from Nanopore sequencing. The project team also includes additional collaborators in Edinburgh, Exeter and Oxford.

Candidates who have been awarded, or are soon to be awarded, a PhD in a relevant discipline and have experience with a broad range of molecular biology, biochemistry and computational data approaches are invited to apply. Applicants must possess the ability to think independently while working within an interdisciplinary research team to drive research projects towards publication. Candidates with a strong track record in epigenomics and/or colorectal cancer biology are particularly welcome.

The post is full-time (35 hours per week) and fixed term - funding is available from 1^st May 2025 for 3 years pending review after 6 months.

The salary for this post is UE07 £40,247 to £47,874 per annum

Further details of work from the Sproul and Myant groups are available at:

institute-genetics-cancer.ed.ac.uk/research/research-groups-a-z/sproul-group

institute-genetics-cancer.ed.ac.uk/research/research-groups-a-z/myant-group

Informal enquiries can be made to d.sproul@ed.ac.uk

Advert information