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

Research Fellow – Bioinformatics – Environmental Carcinogens and Tumour Evolution Scientist

The TRACERx (TRAcking lung Cancer Evolution through therapy(Rx)) study

TRACERx is a UK-wide lung cancer evolution programme which started in 2014 and has to date recruited over 820 patients. It is the first longitudinal cancer genomics study that forms the first national UK consortium focused on deciphering cancer evolution over space and time. TRACERx involves multi-region sequence analyses of lung cancers (5000+ exomes and whole genomes in over 800 patients) from pre-invasive through to primary and metastatic disease setting, in order to understand cancer evolutionary life histories with detailed clinical annotation. The co-primary end points of the study are to investigate the relationship between intratumour heterogeneity and clinical outcomes, and to determine the impact of cancer therapies on intratumour heterogeneity. TRACERx has enabled additional analyses in the areas of immunology, circulating biomarkers, cancer cachexia and body composition, radiomics and tumour microenvironment. Future plans include tumour metabolic imaging and mass spectrometry metabolomics.

TRACERx is supported by the excellent bioinformatics facilities already available in our Centre together with substantial investment in bioinformatics staff, data storage and computer processing power. TRACERx has been highly successful, as of 2023 sequencing data from more than 400 patients have been fully analysed resulting in a flow of high-impact publications, including manuscripts in Nature, Cell, Science and New England Journal of Medicine.

The PEACE (Posthumous Evaluation of Advanced Cancer Environment) study

PEACE is a pan cancer national research autopsy programme in which post-mortem sampling allows access to tissue from all sites of metastasis, and to date has recruited over 390 patients and performed over 240 autopsies. PEACE aims to investigate the biological processes underpinning metastatic disease, including genomic and metabolic drivers of tumour dissemination, and failure of the adaptive immune system. The combination of both TRACERx and PEACE with patient co-recruitment has established an unprecedented resource of multi-regional matched primary and metastatic tissue, and therefore facilitates tissue- and blood-based analyses from diagnosis to death. This is the first national autopsy programme at such scale with a consortium of high calibre scientists and clinicians focussed on various projects relevant to metastasis and drug resistance.

The UCL Cancer Institute

The 2007 opening of the Cancer Institute in the Paul O'Gorman Building heralded a new era in cancer research and medicine at UCL. The Institute is consolidating cancer research across the campus. In particular, it fosters links between basic cancer researchers across Biomedicine, and with the clinical activities of our partner Hospitals (University College London Hospitals, including Queen Square, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the Royal Free Hospital).

The Institute is a £40 million investment by UCL, The Wolfson Foundation, Children with Leukaemia and Atlantic Philanthropies. The overall grant income in 2007 was £37 million from the principal medical charities concerned with cancer (Cancer Research-UK [CR-UK]; Leukaemia Research Fund), other charities including the Wellcome Trust, and from government agencies such as the Medical Research Council. The Institute covers an internal floor area of 8,832m2 and will eventually house 300 scientists. The Institute also incorporates the activities of the new Cancer Clinical Research Facility (Cancer CRF, jointly developed with University College Hospital), and the CR-UK/UCL Clinical Trials Centre (CTC). The Cancer CRF, opening January 2009, will be a state-of-the-art Facility for first-in-man, as well as early phase, clinical trials.

About the role

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.)

About you

The successful applicant should have a proven track record of publications, have previous experience with genomics data analysis, be fluent in at least one of the following programming languages: C++, Python or R, and will have strong skills in the field of genomics and desirably one or more of the following: tumour biology, ctDNA/ blood-based biomarkers, evolutionary biology, statistics and mathematics.

What we offer

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:

• 41 Days holiday (including 27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)
• Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)
• Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan
• On-Site nursery
• On-site gym
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
• Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service
• Discounted medical insurance

Please visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/rewards-and-benefits to find out more.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London's Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world's talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.

We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL's workforce.

These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.

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

Available documents

• download: JD_Nnenna_Kanu_RFEL.pdf