Senior Research Associate

Company description:

We are a world class research-intensive university. We deliver teaching and learning of the highest quality. We play a leading role in economic, social and cultural development of the North East of England. Attracting and retaining high-calibre people is fundamental to our continued success.

Job description:

The Role

We seek an enthusiastic and ambitious researcher/bioinformatician to join our team in the Translational and Clinical Research Institute to work on an exciting project.

Liver cancer incidence and mortality is rising. This is attributed to an increase in steatotic liver disease (SLD), or fatty liver disease, associated with a sedentary lifestyle in an aging population, central obesity, type 2 diabetes and alcohol intake. Liver cancer, most commonly hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is typically detected at a late stage. Palliative medical therapies are available, but many elderly patients are not fit enough to withstand the side effects of these. In those deemed fit enough, response rates are poor - in the region of just 25% - with many suffering side effects impacting quality of life, without benefit. The poor response rate is not well understood, but immunosuppression in the SLD environment is believed to contribute. There is an urgent need to characterise the mechanisms of responsiveness and resistance, and to deliver novel combination therapies. However, it is also of paramount importance to develop biomarker strategies to choose the therapy a person with HCC is most likely to respond to, as well as biomarkers that can help us stratify HCC risk in the presence of SLD. Preventive or early detection strategies, avoiding the need for palliative medical therapies, would help save more lives.

Cancer Research UK funded an observational trial called HUNTER. Clinical data and samples over multiple lines of treatment for more than 1000 patients have been collected. We have also secured EU funding for a project called THRIVE (Tumour-host interactions of liver cancer of childhood and adults), focused on early cancer detection in patients at risk. Multiple sample derived datasets are being generated, including genomic DNA analysis, serum proteomics, peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) analysis, RNAseq, whole slide images (WSI) and immunohistochemistry images on an OMERO online repository and spatial data generated by MACSIMA, VISIUM HD and CODEX.

This role will involve maintaining and further developing the datasets for inclusion in a secure data environment supported by Cancer Research Horizons. The Senior Research Associate will apply bioinformatic analyses to these datasets (e.g. single nucleotide polymorphisms, RNAseq, serum proteome, WSI, spatial data), incorporating the clinical data, for the identification of biomarkers that predict HCC development risk, but also response to treatment.

You will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team including clinicians and non-clinical scientists in the William Leech Building and the Paul O'Gorman Building, within the Newcastle University Centre for Cancer.

You will have a PhD relevant to this position. Bioinformatics skills, with relevant experience analysing relevant datasets will be required. Detailed knowledge of chronic liver disease and HCC staging, medical therapies, experience assessing liver biopsy histopathology images will be preferred. You will be expected to have a very good understanding of the different spatial technologies available, their respective benefits and disadvantages, and have some experience with spatial data analyses.

This post is a full-time position, for 2 years in the first instance.

For informal enquiries contact: Helen Reeves h.l.reeves@ncl.ac.uk