Senior Scientific Officer

About the role:

We are looking to recruit a highly motivated Senior Scientific Officer based within CRUK NBC Translational Immunology team and the CRUK Manchester Institute Cancer Inflammation and Immunity group. This is a challenging opportunity to work at the forefront of translational medicine and contribute to assay development that will ultimately inform clinical decision making. We are particularly interested in hearing from candidates who have, or may wish to develop, computational skills for the analysis of transcriptomics data.

Background:

The Cancer Research UK National Biomarker Centre (NBC) led by Prof Caroline Dive CBE aims to enhance clinical trials of new anticancer drugs through translational research. Immunotherapy is currently a rapidly expanding research area in oncology and profiling of patient samples is essential to predict responses, identify candidate biomarkers and personalise therapy aimed at harnessing the immune system to target the tumour. To investigate the challenges posed by this emerging field we are collaborating with the research group of Dr Santiago Zelenay (CRUK Manchester Institute) to establish a biomarker assay platform using patient derived tumour fragments (PDTF).

About you:

You will hold a degree (or equivalent) in Biological Sciences or related subject (or have equivalent relevant experience) along with extensive experience of carrying out several routine cell biology and molecular biology laboratory techniques, including cell culture and protein expression analysis. A sound foundational knowledge and interest in the immunology field is essential along with experience in assay development and validation, ideally gained working in a biomarker research environment. A postgraduate degree in biological sciences and knowledge of cancer biology is desirable along with existing expertise in bioinformatics.

We will be keen to consider wet lab scientists interested in developing computational skills.

This project will require some evening work due to the timing of sample receipt.

You will have key qualities including independent thinking, and proactive problem solving. You will possess excellent written skills, be a confident communicator with excellent presentation skills, have effective organisational skills and be computer literate. You will possess experience supervising the work of others and in the processing and/or analysis of clinical samples together with knowledge of good clinical practice.

Why choose Cancer Research UK National Biomarker Centre and CRUK Manchester Institute?

The Cancer Research UK National Biomarker Centre (https://cruknbc.org/) is a leading and highly specialised translational research centre within The University of Manchester (www.manchester.ac.uk), core funded by Cancer Research UK (www.cancerresearchuk.org), the largest independent cancer research organisation in the world.  The CRUK Manchester Institute is an internationally leading centre for basic and translational scientific research in the oncology field. Within CRUK MI, the Cancer Inflammation and Immunology Group has contributed major findings to our understanding of cancer immunology including discovery of COX-2 as a driver of tumour immune evasion.

How to apply?

To apply for this position please visit our website: https://cruknbc.org/news/

Please note this vacancy will close for applications at 11:59pm on the closing date specified.

For any informal enquiries about this post, please contact Dr Santiago Zelenay: santiago.zelenay@cruk.manchester.ac.uk ; or CRUK-NBC team lead Dr David Millrine: David.millrine@cruk.manchester.ac.uk.

Closing date: 2 April 2025.

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