英国伦敦癌症研究所基因功能研究博士后职位

英国伦敦癌症研究所基因功能研究博士后职位

Post Doctoral Training Fellow - Gene Function team

The Breast Cancer Now Toby Robins Research Centre at the ICR is the first centre in the UK entirely devoted to breast cancer research. Our goal is to advance research into the causes, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. It is located in state-of-the-art laboratory space, with excellent core facilities and funding.

The Gene Function Laboratory focuses upon identifying and understanding tumour specific dependencies, such as synthetic lethal effects, as a means to design novel approaches to treating cancer. We have made major advances in identifying synthetic lethal interactions involving, for example, PARP inhibitors (Farmer et al Nature (2005), Edwards et al Nature (2008), Bajrami et al, Cancer Research (2014)), ATR inhibitors (Williamson et al, Nature Communications (2016)) and ROS1 inhibitors (Bajrami et al, Cancer Discovery (2018)). Using this same concept we have also systematically identified synthetic lethal interactions in breast cancer (Brough et al, Cancer Discovery (2011), Campbell et al, Cell Reports (2016)). We also use genetic approaches to understand the mechanisms of action of agents that target the DNA damage response (Pettitt et al; Krastev et al Nature Communications (2018)) We aim to generate pre-clinical information that can inform the design of clinical trials and the identification of novel targets for drug discovery programmes.

We are seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Training Fellow to study synthetic lethal effects that operate in cancer, with the express aim of developing better ways to treat the disease. This project will concentrate on identifying and understanding synthetic lethal interactions with two common genetic alterations in cancer: loss of the Rbtumour suppressor and amplification of Cyclin E. This project would suit candidates with a background or interest in the biology of the cell cycle, replication stress or genome instability. The successful candidate will use a range of genetic and molecular biology techniques to discover and characterize these interactions, including: CRISPR, siRNA and drug screens, analysis of clinical sequencing and public genetic dependency data, patient-derived organoids and xenografts, and appropriate cell cycle and DNA repair assays. We anticipate that the project will lead to a better understanding of vulnerabilities associated with Rb loss or Cyclin E amplification. This could result in proposals for new targets for future drug discovery projects, or hypotheses for clinical trials repurposing existing drugs to target cancers with these genetic defects.

This position is offered on a fixed term 3 year contract. Starting salary is in the range of £32,844* to £41,718 per annum inclusive based on previous postdoctoral experience.