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Research Associate in Microscopy of Mitochondrial Copy-Number
Reference NAT00744
£40,215 – £47,579 plus benefits
Applications are invited for a Research Associate joint between the labs of Professors Nick Jones at Imperial College London and Patrick Chinnery at the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit. Experiments will principally be undertaken in the Cambridge Mitochondrial Biology Unit.
Cells control their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) yet the process of this control has been poorly characterized. Through a combination of microscopy, image analysis and some flow-cytometry the appointee will attempt to understand and perturb this system. Beyond being of fundamental relevance to our biological understanding; the character of control of mtDNA defines the rate and manner in which mutant mtDNA expands through cellular populations. The expansion of mutant mtDNA is implicated in ageing: thus the project seeks to identify some of the basic mechanisms of ageing. The project is a close collaboration between two groups that both have a track record of working at the interface between experiment and theory and aligns with another PDRA and 2 PhDs joint between our groups.
Links for context:
http://systems-signals.blogspot.com/
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/nick.jones/publications.html
http://www.mrc-mbu.cam.ac.uk/people/patrick-chinnery
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/mathematics-precision-healthcare/
The appointment will be split between Imperial and Cambridge and, like other current team members joint between the groups, there will be travel between the two sites throughout the appointment. It is anticipated that the appointment will be principally experimental, and the experimental base will be in Cambridge.
Duties and responsibilities
Duties and responsibilities
- To deploy and refine, already protoyped, microscopy tools for counting mitochondrial nucleoids inside cells and linking them to measures of cell volume, mtDNA turnover and the mitochondrial network. This will be principally confocal microscopy and requires familiarity with image analysis.
- To deploy and refine prototyped microscopy tools and image analysis for tracking the amount of mitochondrial content through time.
- To complement these microscopy efforts with a pre-existing pipeline that links flow-cytometry linked to single-cell digital PCR for estimating mtDNA copy-number.
- To culture appropriate cell lines including monolayers we have tested.
- To engage with efforts (possibly by others in our team) to develop and refine stochastic models for the control of mitochondrial content and to use simpler statistical methods to explore the data.
- To engage with efforts (possibly by others in our team) to link the flow-cytometry data to CRISPR screens and single cell transcriptomics.
Essential requirements
The essential requirements for this post are as follows:
- A PhD (or equivalent) in Quantitative Cell Biology, Experimental Biological Physics, Biophysics, or closely aligned disciplines, or an equivalent level of professional qualifications.
Experience in:
- Quantitative Cellular Microscopy
- Quantitative Image Analysis
- Experience with cell culture
- Strong interest in the project
- Strong track record of high-quality independent research, commensurate with career stage
Experience and knowledge in one or more of the following techniques:
- Confocal microscopy
- Super-resolution microscopy
- Single-cell video tracking
Further information
*Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as Research Assistant. The salary range is £35,477- £38,566 per annum.
For further information and to apply please visit https://www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/description/NAT00744/research-associate-microscopy-mitochondrial-copy-number
Closing date 14 September 2020
