DMU was awarded Gold in the recent Teaching Excellence Framework. This achievement recognises a range of strengths for which DMU has become well-known: teaching excellence, an outstanding student experience, high student employability, a wide range of volunteering opportunities, a determination to widen participation in higher education, and an unwavering commitment to improving student achievement.

Our teaching excellence is also demonstrated by the significant number of outstanding lecturers at the university. They work with our learning community to create an environment in which our students can grow to their full potential.

We are committed to enhancing learning through technology, while creating a cultural awareness within all our students.

Faculty / Directorate

Home to four specialist schools - Allied Health Sciences, Applied Social Sciences, Nursing and Midwifery, and Leicester School of Pharmacy - the faculty educates and develops professionals who make a significant difference to lives, health, wellbeing, communities and society.

Teaching reflects the latest developments in the sector and many courses have professional accreditations. A range of work experience and volunteering opportunities enables students to develop the skills sought by graduate employers. Recent graduates have secured roles with leading employers such as AstraZeneca, Ministry of Defence and the NHS.

The dedicated facilities are designed to replicate current practice and feature industry-standard equipment, enabling staff and students to undertake life changing projects to improve health and social care.

Role

Applications are invited for the fixed term (8 month) post of Research Assistant, Grade E (£26,495 - £32,548 per annum)

or

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in NMR-Linked Metabolomics and Molecular Biology, Grade F (£33,518 - £36,613 per annum).

The research programme involved will explore the time-dependent sequence of metabolic stress responses arising from perturbed metabolic pathways which reflect pathogenic mechanisms associated with CLN3 protein inactivation in Juvenile Batten Disease (JBD); the seeking and identification of new and reliable biomarkers of JBD activity and progression in a cell culture model; employment of these datasets in order to enhance our understanding of the JBD disease process at the molecular, biochemical and cellular levels; and the recognition of points of intervention for potential therapeutic agents (particularly the identification and validation of specific drug targets). In this manner, new biomarkers will be identified for this rare neurodegenerative disease in order to facilitate its diagnosis, allow us to monitor its progression and response to drug treatment, and also employ associated drug-targeting strategies. High-resolution NMR investigations will involve the time-dependent metabolomics analysis of both extracted and live cells, together with corresponding culture media. This post is funded by the Beyond Batten Disease Research Foundation (BBDF), and is a collaborative research programme with the Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford, and the Centre for Biomolecular Spectroscopy, King's College London.

Ideal Candidate

You should possess a PhD degree (prior to commencing this post-doctoral post) along with a strong technical expertise in molecular and systems biology, and/or biomedical NMR analysis. Also, a high level of expertise and experience in cell culture techniques is required.

Experience with in vivo and/or in vitro metabolomics investigations and experience with multivariate data analysis is essential.

You will be fluent in both written and spoken English, with well developed collaborative and inter-personal skills. Some experience in the supervision of BSc project and/or PhD students is required.

Information:

For further information about the position, please contact Professor Martin Grootveld, tel: +44 (0)116 6443, e-mail: mgrootveld@dmu.ac.uk