Research Fellow

The Sussex Drug Discovery Centre (SDDC) wishes to recruit a talented scientist to join the Drug Discovery team under the supervision of Prof Erika Mancini and Prof John Spencer.

The successful candidate will work in a multidisciplinary environment on an exciting and emerging area of oncology drug discovery and interact closely with our cellular biology and medicinal chemistry teams. The Post-doc will be involved in high-throughput X-ray crystallography, fragment-based screening and structure-based drug design and will be responsible for crystallisation, structure determination, structural and biophysical analysis of protein-ligand complexes. This is a one year contract funded by Omaze-Blood Cancer UK for a collaborative project with the group of Prof Nerlov at the University of Oxford.

The SDDC is a multi-disciplinary team of drug discovery scientists developing novel cancer and ion channel therapeutics. Our goal is to enable and accelerate drug discovery of novel therapeutics, with the specific focus in diseases with high unmet medical need. We build on our strength internally, drawing on the internationally recognised oncology research in Life Sciences and Brighton and Sussex Medical Schools at Sussex. We are a training hub for the next generation of drug discovery scientists. An overview of research within the SDDC can be found at

The successful candidate will be part of the School of Life Sciences, and will have access to state of the art crystallisation facilities, in-house X-ray sources, Cryo-electron microscopy, NMR, Mass Spectrometry and a Biophysical suite as well as excellent access to synchrotrons.

Applicants must have a PhD in a biological or physical science, and experience in molecular biology, structure-based drug design, biophysics and macromolecular crystallography (to include protein biochemistry, protein crystallisation and protein crystallography).

Appointment will be on a fixed term contract of 1 year in the first instance.
Informal enquiries to or Please DO NOT send your application to Prof Mancini or Spencer; applications must be submitted via the Sussex web site

EDI statement:

The University of Sussex values the diversity of its staff and students and we welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

The School of Life Sciences is committed to increasing the diversity of its staff and providing an inclusive working environment. The School currently holds an Athena SWAN Silver Award, has developed a Race Equity Action Plan and hosts an active Equality, Diversity and Inclusion working group. Applications are particularly welcomed from Black and minority ethnic candidates, and women, trans and non-binary candidates, who are under-represented in the School of Life Sciences.

For full details and how to apply, click the 'Apply' button above.

£37,099 to £44,263 per annum, pro rata if part time - Research Fellow I