Research Assistant

**Job Description**:
**Job Title**:Research Assistant

**Posting Start Date**:03/10/2025

**Job Id**:1640

**School/Department**:School of Medicine & Population Health

**Work Arrangement**:Full Time (On site)

**Contract Type**:Fixed-term

**Salary per annum (£)**:£32,080.00- £36,636

**Closing Date**:26/10/2025

The University of Sheffield is a remarkable place to work. Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Their diverse backgrounds, abilities and beliefs make Sheffield a world-class university.

We offer a fantastic range of benefits including a highly competitive annual leave entitlement (with the ability to purchase more), a generous pensions scheme, flexible working opportunities, a commitment to your development and wellbeing, a wide range of retail discounts, and much more.

**Overview**:

- Applications are invited for the post of Research Assistant to join Sheffield’s Translational Neuro-Oncology Research Group led by Prof. Spencer Collis (Science), Mr. Ola Rominiyi (Translational) and Mr. Yahia Al-Tamimi (Clinical) in collaboration with Prof. Munitta Muthana within the School of Medicine and Population Health at the University of Sheffield’s Medical School.
- We are seeking a highly motivated, practically skilled, well organised and semi-independent individual to work on a 3-year project funded by the Yorkshire Cancer Research (YCR) to carry out preclinical assessment of DNA repair inhibitors in combination with tumour treating fields (TTFields) therapy with a focus on _in vivo_ assessment, following recent promising cell-based studies by our team.
- This will involve working within our team to establish new brain-invasive orthotopic patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models of glioblastoma using cells from within our within the Sheffield Living Biobank of patient-derived primary glioma stem cell-like (GSC) culture models, and conducting detailed efficacy studies assessing DNA repair inhibitors in combination with TTFields and standard of care therapies in PDX (subcutaneous and orthotopic) and syngeneic (orthotopic only) models.

**Main duties and responsibilities**
- Design, execute and evaluate experiments
- Keep excellent experimental records
- Work collaboratively including shared responsibilities within a team of 2 other PRDAs to deliver the studies
- Maintain excellent communication and working relationships with wider team members within the Biological Services Unit including vets and Animal Welfare Officers
- Complete training in use of the inovivo TTFields delivery system (training provided)
- Prepare reports regularly and feed back to other members of the research group.
- Contribute to the preparation of scientific manuscripts, attend and deliver seminars/lab meetings
- Help supervise undergraduate and MSc students
- Advise PhD students as necessary as part of a collaborative research team.
- Carry out other duties, commensurate with the grade and remit of the post

**Person Specification**
- Our diverse community of staff and students recognises the unique abilities, backgrounds, and beliefs of all. We foster a culture where everyone feels they belong and is respected. Even if your past experience doesn't match perfectly with this role's criteria, your contribution

**Criteria**

**Essential or desirable**

**Stage(s) assessed at**
Extensive practical and theoretical experience in mammalian cell culture growth and manipulation, including molecular and cellular laboratory work especially in western blotting, immunofluorescence and cell survival assays.EssentialApplication/interviewExtensive practical experience **_in vivo_** studies (mouse)** including tumour cell implantation, monitoring and assessment, imaging (e.g. IVIS & small animal MRI), blood sampling, and post-mortem analyses of tissues including immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence - with a current or recent Home Office Personal License (PIL).
EssentialApplication/interviewExperience of designing experiments and accurately collecting data with subsequent robust analysis using appropriate statistical methods.EssentialApplication/interviewEssentialApplication/interviewKnowledge of and compliance with good laboratory practice and awareness of laboratory safety and general laboratory competence.EssentialApplication/interviewEffective written and verbal communication skills.EssentialApplication/interviewExperience of preparing and delivering presentations and reports on data generated.EssentialApplication/interviewAbility to work either independently and/or as part of a multidisciplinary team to meet deadlines.EssentialApplication/interviewBe able to assist and support research students, PDRAs and other staff, as well as visiting researchers when required.EssentialApplication/interviewGeneric IT skills, including Microsoft Office suite and Prism.EssentialApplication/interviewGood organisational and time management skills and a proven ability to keep accurate and reliable records.EssentialApplication/interviewExperien