Research Assistant in Cardiovascular Medicine

About Us

The School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences (SCMMS) is one of six schools that make up the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine (FoLSM) at King College London. The School drives translation of world-leading basic science into advances in clinical practices with activities focusing on the Cardiac Biomedicine Department of Diabetes and Vascular Biomedicine.    

About the role

This position is for a talented and enthusiastic research assistant to work on a British Heart Foundation funded project focusing on the investigation of the molecular determinants of epicardial epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) to enable cardiovascular regeneration under the supervision of Dr Joaquim Nunes Vieira.

The successful applicant will assist with animal colony husbandry & maintenance, phenotyping of novel mouse models, culture of mouse and human primary cells, imaging by epifluorescence and/or confocal microscopy, and make use of standard cell and molecular biology techniques (e.g., immunostaining, western blotting, cloning, PCR, real-time qRT-PCR, multiplex in situ hybridization, etc). Responsibility also includes managing your own research & administrative activities; determining the most appropriate methodologies to test hypotheses; selecting, following, &  adapting experimental protocols; gathering, analysing, and presenting scientific data from a variety of sources and contributing to discussions and share research findings with colleagues in partner institutions, and research groups.

We therefore seek to appoint an individual with a good Undergraduate and/or Masters degree in a relevant field (e.g., cell/molecular biology, biochemistry or life/biological sciences) and a strong background in cell & molecular biology as well as experience of working with in vivo mouse models of cardiac development and disease. Experience in contributing to reports and articles for publication is desirable. The postholder will be part of a vibrant multi-disciplinary research group working on different aspects of understanding mechanisms and identifying novel advanced therapies for cardiovascular regeneration, within the King’s BHF Centre of Research Excellence which has state-of-the-art laboratory facilities. 

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed-term contract until the 30th September 2026.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills & experience:

Essential criteria

• Good undergraduate and/or Masters degree in a relevant field (e.g. cell/molecular biology, biochemistry or life/biological sciences)
• Proven experience in working in a scientific laboratory
• Strong background in cell/molecular/developmental biology and/or genetics
• Experience in setting up cellular, molecular and/or biochemical assays and/or cell imaging and/or tissue/cell culture
• Experience of following & adapting protocols and selecting appropriate experimental methodologies
• Be highly motivated and hard-working, with the capacity to work independently, think creatively and a demonstrated ability to work as part of a team & undertake share of group tasks
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to write text that can be published, present data at conferences, and represent the research group at meetings
• Able to plan and prioritise workload and keep clear and well-organised laboratory notes and records

Desirable criteria

• Background in cardiovascular biology
• Experience in mammalian cell culture, including differentiation assays using human ESC and/or iPSCs
• Experience working with transgenic mouse models, including handling, tissue harvesting & microdissection, and colony husbandry and maintenance (e.g. Genotyping)
• Have a personal licence to work with animals in the UK or be prepared to obtain such a licence via attendance of in-house courses
• Experience of contributing to reports/articles for publication and/or applying computational analysis to process & analyse large datasets (e.g. R, Phyton, IMARIS, CellProfiler, etc)

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