Research Fellow

About us

Biosciences is one of the world’s foremost centres for research and teaching in the biological sciences and one of the largest Divisions within UCL, undertaking a significant amount of research and teaching.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Koch lab within the Medawar Pain and Somatosensory Group.

The Koch lab investigates adaptive plasticity in sensorimotor circuits. Movement is fundamental to our survival, this includes seeking food, shelter or escaping harm. Our movement must therefore be adaptive to allow us to sense the environment and react to our surroundings in the most appropriate manner for safety. Our primary research interest is to understand how the nervous system learns to interact with the environment in order to allow specific and precise movements to be recruited.

About the role

As Research Fellow, you will lead a project investigating the spinal circuits underlying pain localisation and how these circuits may contribute to chronic widespread pain. The project aims to establish a link between the maturation of spinal circuits and their plasticity within chronic widespread pain states. To do so, we use combination of viral manipulations, transgenic mouse lines, electrophysiology, sensorimotor behavioural tests and machine learning.

The project will include designing and running experiments, recording, analysing and writing up results. The postholder will work as part of a team to advance lab projects and in addition contribute to general lab duties such as maintaining stocks and supervise students in research projects.

This role is an open-ended contract funded for two years from the start date in the first instance.

Please note that salary will be £48,007 per annum including London Allowance. Also, appointment at Grade 7 is dependent upon having been awarded a PhD; if this is not the case, initial appointment will be at Grade 6B with payment at Grade 7 being backdated to the date of final submission of the PhD Thesis.

This role is eligible for hybrid working with a minimum of 80% on site and is subject to UCL Terms and Conditions of Service for Research and Professional Services Staff. Please visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/human-resources/conditions-service-research-teaching-and-professional-services-staff for more information.

If you have any queries about the role, please contact Stephanie Koch. If you need reasonable adjustments or a more accessible format to apply for this job online or have any queries about the application process, please contact the HR team stating the advert reference number in the subject line.

About you

You must have a PhD (or be working towards it) in an area related to neurobiology and expertise in two or more of the following: circuit dissection, viral manipulations, behavioural analysis, electrophysiology.

For more details on the requirements, please refer to the job description and person specification that can be accessed via the “apply” button.

What we offer

The UCL Ways of Working supports colleagues to be successful and happy at UCL through sharing expectations around how we work – please visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/human-resources/policies-advice/ways-working to find out more.

We also offer some great benefits, visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

You can read more about our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion/

Customer advert reference: B02-08501

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