Research Fellow

About us

UCL Institute of Ophthalmology conducts cutting-edge research, attracting principal investigators, post-doctoral fellows and MD/PhD students of the highest international calibre to a stimulating research environment. The Institute is committed to a multi-disciplinary research portfolio that furthers an understanding of the eye and visual system linked with clinical investigations targeted to specific problems in the prevention and treatment of eye disease.

About the role

We are looking to appoint a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, to join the MacDonald Laboratory. This role is to lead a research project entitled “Genetic dysregulation in glial cells as a driver of neurodegeneration in retinal ageing”. This project is funded by the BBSRC and will be based in the Institute of Ophthalmology at the University College London. This project will explore how genetic dysregulation in glial cells called Muller glia change in the ageing retina to potentially drive age-related neurodegeneration in the retina.

The main duties of the post holder will be to explore fundamental mechanisms of molecular dysregulation as a potential driver of age-related neurodegeneration. We will use established techniques of killifish genetics (transgenesis, CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis), multiplex cellular labelling, -omics technologies, high-resolution imaging and computational analysis. The post holder will also develop new genetic techniques and tools to explore cell-specific genetic dysregulation, which may include but are not limited to, gene tagging, knock-in technologies, inducible gene expression in vivo and drug screening. The postdoc will also be expected to assist in supervision of technicians and students, including PhD students, to support the laboratory.

The post is graded at postdoctoral Grade 7 (sp 31; salary £44,230 including London Allowance). Cost of living pay awards are negotiated nationally and are normally effective from 1^st August each year. The post is funded for two years in the first instance.

About you

This post offers an exciting opportunity to join a research group lead by Dr. Ryan MacDonald focused on understanding the ageing and disease of the retina. This project uses the killifish retina to approach longstanding problems in neuroscience by studying age-related genetic dysregulation in the rapidly ageing killifish.

The overarching research aim of our laboratory is to understand how a healthy eye is built and maintained throughout life. More specifically, we are interested in how glial cells, the major support cells in the nervous system, are patterned and shaped during development to support neurons. We are also interested in what happens when the intricate glia-neuronal relationship breaks down due to increasing age or disease.

The MacDonald lab use both zebrafish and killifish as model organisms to explore retina development and ageing. We use genetic engineering (cloning, transgenesis, CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis), multiplex cellular labelling techniques (immunofluorescence, in situ), high resolution imaging (confocal, 2-photon, spinning disk), computational analysis to explore fundamentals of glial biology.

The MacDonald group consists of a diverse and including group of scientists with postdocs, PhD students and MSc students. For further information on the MacDonald lab group please see:http://zebrafishucl.org/macdonald-lab

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