Postdoctoral Researcher

**UE07 £35,333 - £42,155**

**School of Molecular and Clinical Medicine**

**MRC Human Genetics Unit, MRC Institute of Genetics and Cancer**

**Fixed term (2 years 8 months), 35 hours per week**

We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated cancer biologist to join our team in melanoma heterogeneity. Our group forms part of a vibrant research community within the MRC Human Genetics Unit where our specific focus is understanding how heterogeneous melanoma cell populations contribute to disease progression. Strong interest in cancer heterogeneity and/or bar coding technologies is crucial whilst previous experience in omics analysis and melanoma model techniques are desirable.

**The Opportunity**:
A major question in melanoma is to understand which patients will have recurrent disease following therapy. The goal of this project is to identify and elucidate the cell(s) of origin in residual disease that contributes to recurrent disease. In particular this project will involve using multi-spectral lineage tracing and bar coding techniques to follow individual cells over time and how they contribute to melanoma disease progression.

**Your skills and attributes for success**:

- Strong interest in melanoma heterogeneity and disease models, specifically persister cells in residual disease
- Previous experience in advanced imaging techniques
- Experience working with datasets and zebrafish is desirable, but not essential
- Ability to work independently, to take a leadership role in driving a project forward, and to work well as a member of a collaborative team

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**As a valued member of our team you can expect**:
An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work. We give you support, nurture your talent and reward success. You will benefit from a competitive reward package and a wide range of staff benefits, which includes a generous holiday entitlement, a defined benefits pension scheme, staff discounts, family friendly initiatives, flexible working and much more. Access our staff benefits page for further information and use our reward calculator to find out the total value of pay and benefits provided.

The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality.

As a world-leading research-intensive University, we are here to address tomorrow’s greatest challenges. Between now and 2030 we will do that with a values-led approach to teaching, research and innovation, and through the strength of our relationships, both locally and globally.

A deep understanding of human genome function - particularly for the non-coding genome - is an outstanding grand challenge. Our mission is to discover how our genome controls the function of molecules, cells and tissues, in health and disease, connecting human genetic variation to phenotype.

Multidisciplinary HGU research programs embrace genetic, computational, biochemical, cellular, model organism and clinical approaches, to gain meaningful insights across scales and dynamic processes, with cross-cutting themes in 4D Cellular Medicine and Genome Interpretation.

The MRC Human Genetics Unit is part of the Institute of Genetics and Cancer (IGC). This partnership with CRUK Edinburgh Centre and Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine Centre aims to understand development and disease by using the latest developments in genetic, genomic, cellular and clinical science. The partnership provides access to state of the art scientific facilities, scientific infrastructure and business support, including on site Advanced Imaging Resource, Animal Model support, Bioinformatics Analysis Core, DNA sequencing, Flow Cytometry, Mass Spectrometry, HTPU microarray. The IGC also offers a highly collegial environment with excellent local career development support, active social, wellbeing and sustainability related groups making it a very desirable and supportive working environment.