Research Fellow – Bioinformatics – Environmental Carcinogens and Tumour Evolution Scientist Full-time NEW

Research Fellow – Bioinformatics – Environmental Carcinogens and Tumour Evolution Scientist

We are seeking a collaborative and self-motivated bioinformatician post-doctoral fellow to work on investigating epigenetic alterations linked to different environmental aerosol exposures. Our previous work identified air pollutants associated with lung cancer promotion; however, the potential health risks associated with other aerosol exposures have not yet been well studied.

Prof Nnenna Kanu leads the Genome Plasticity laboratory at the UCL Cancer Institute and is the Chief Scientific Officer of the Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence. The Kanu Lab is a multi-disciplinary group of passionate and determined individuals who will provide the successful candidate with a stimulating and conducive environment to participate and grow as a scientist. The research in the lab is conducted in close collaboration with local and international scientists and clinicians, especially across the TRACERx and PEACE consortia and the CRUK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence including prof Charles Swanton and Dr Dimitrios Anastasiou. These collaborative environments will provide the successful candidate with opportunities to learn from a large network of talented professionals.

This project aims to analyse how immune cells respond to environmental aerosol exposures over time using WGS/RNA/ATAC/DNA methylation sequencing and the consequent metabolomic changes in immune and epithelial cells. The candidate will study how environmental aerosol exposures affects specific immune cells in mouse lung cancer models and analyse relevant published human data. Environmental aerosol exposures -associated changes in human blood will be compared to early cancer signs observed in mice. The project will leverage existing whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from current and former smokers, using multi-region matched primary and metastatic tumours from the TRACERx lung cancer evolution study, to investigate potential universal mutational signatures shared between smoking and other environmental aerosol exposures.

The position will be available for 2 years in the first instance, with the possibility of extension depending on funding availability. Appointment at Grade 7 is dependent upon having been awarded a PhD; if this is not the case, initial appointment will be at Research Assistant Grade 6B, with payment at Grade 7 being backdated to the date of final submission of the PhD thesis.

Applications should include a CV and a Cover Letter: In the Cover Letter please provide evidence of the essential and desirable criteria in the Person Specification part of the Job Description. (By including a Cover Letter, you can leave blank the 'Why you have applied for this role' field in the application form, which is limited in the number of characters it will allow.)