Research Associate

Job number

**MED05301**
- Faculties

**Faculty of Medicine**
- Departments

**Department of Brain Sciences**
- Salary or Salary range

**£48,056 - £56,345 per annum**
- Location/campus

**White City Campus - On site only**
- Contract type work pattern

**Full time - Fixed term**
- Posting End Date

**7 Jul 2025**

**About the role**:
Today, over 1 million people in the UK are living with dementia and related neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and motor neuron disease (MND). The impact of these incurable and progressive conditions on individuals and their families is devastating. The cost to the economy and public services is large and growing as the UK population ages. However, due to major advances in our understanding of the biology of these diseases, the scientific field is at a tipping point, with the next decade promising to deliver transformative breakthroughs in therapies and a new era of predictive, preventative, and precision medicine for neurodegenerative conditions. The UK is well placed to play a leading role in this revolution due to its scientific strengths in the field, led by the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) working with our world-class, university-based centres. We are a globally leading multidisciplinary research institute of over 900 staff investigating the spectrum of neurodegenerative disorders causing dementia, driving a step change in our understanding of neurodegeneration, and accelerating the discovery, development and delivery of interventions that will help diagnose, treat, and ultimately prevent dementia. Our principal funder is the Medical Research Council (MRC).

**What you would be doing**:
You will lead a project intended to develop a molecular description of how glial cells may trigger neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease. The work will be guided by explorations of how risk variants associated the disease that are expected to modulate microglial function, lipid homeostasis or pathological protein degradation lead potentiate neurodegenerative processes. A strong foundation for this work has been established with the development of methods for highly multiplexed imaging mass cytometry, multi-omic data acquisition and analyses.

**What we are looking for**:

- You will be a motivated and organised researcher, excited by the science we do.
- You will hold (or be near completion of) a PhD in neuroscience (or related discipline).
- Experience of one or more laboratory techniques including immunohistology, single cell transcriptomics, spatial transcriptomics
- Experience of statistical analysis
- Experience of emerging genomics approaches, e.g., long-read sequencing

**What we can offer you**:
This role is part of the UK Dementia Research Institute at Imperial College London, located in the Department of Brain Sciences. Postdocs here enjoy excellent career development opportunities with:

- Access to a range of cutting-edge technologies
- An inclusive and collegial working environment.
- Strong national links through the UK DRI with attendance at its annual scientific meeting ‘Connectome’.
- The opportunity to continue your career at a world-leading institution and be part of our mission to continue science for humanity.
- Grow your career: gain access to Imperial’s sector-leading dedicated career support for researchers as well as opportunities for promotion and progression.
- Sector-leading salary and remuneration package (including 39 days off a year and generous pension schemes).

**Further information**:
This is a full-time post on a fixed-term contract for 3 years.

**Available documents**:

- Attached documents are available under links. Clicking a document link will initialize its download.- Please note that job descriptions are not exhaustive, and you may be asked to take on additional duties that align with the key responsibilities mentioned above.

**About Imperial**:
Welcome to Imperial, a global top ten university where scientific imagination leads to world-changing impact.

Join us and be part of something bigger. From global health to climate change, AI to business leadership, here at Imperial we navigate some of the world’s toughest challenges. Whatever your role, your contribution will have a lasting impact.

As a member of our vibrant community of 22,000 students and 8,000 staff, you’ll collaborate with passionate minds across nine London campuses and a global network.

This is your chance to help shape the future. We hope you’ll join us at Imperial College London.

**Our Culture**:
Our values are at the root of everything we do and everyone in our community is expected to demonstrate respect, collaboration, excellence, integrity, and innovation.