King's College London

About Us

The School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences (SCMMS) provides an outstanding multi-disciplinary environment for the pursuit of cutting-edge cardiovascular and metabolic research. We study the fundamental molecular, cellular, and physiological processes that underly normal and abnormal cardiovascular and metabolic function and drive the translation of this strong basic science into advances in clinical practice. Our research focuses on four main Themes (Cardiac, Vascular, Cardiometabolic, Diabetes & Obesity), with two cross-cutting Themes (Basic and Clinical). The School is led by Professor Mauro Giacca and comprises over 65 clinical and non-clinical academic groups, hosting 400 personnel and 110 PhD students. Our community of world-renowned researchers and educators have access to state-of-the art core facilities and expertise, including facilities for high-throughput screening and high content imaging, multimodality in vivo imaging, proteomics, integrative physiology and viral & non-viral vector production. The School activities are carried out at three main locations: James Black Centre in Denmark Hill, St Thomas’s Hospital and Franklin-Wilkins Building in South Bank and the Hodgkin Building and New Hunt House/Randal Centre in Guy’s Campus. As part of King’s Health Partners, we have an excellent environment for basic-clinical interaction and a strong focus on mentoring and career development. The School hosts the British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence at King's, which brings together a unique range of internationally recognised scientists and clinicians from across the School and King’s College London.

More information:  https://www.kcl.ac.uk/scmms

About The Role

Post-doctoral Researcher wanted to join a multi-disciplinary team investigating Na overload and metabolic reprogramming in heart failure. The project, using state-of-the -art techniques, is a collaboration between investigators in the schools of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine (SCMMS) and Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences (BMEIS) at King’s College London (St Thomas’s Campus).

The post will suit someone with a PhD in the cellular mechanisms of injury in small animal models of heart failure and expertise in mitochondrial metabolism, biochemistry or physiology. This project aims to investigate how lowering intracellular Na using novel transgenic and optogenetic methods may reverse pathological metabolic and functional reprogramming. These studies will involve using small animal in vivo models of heart failure, functional assessment using echocardiography, isolated heart perfusions and NMR spectroscopy and metabolomics.  A background in in vivo heart failure models and functional assessment is ideal and experience in mitochondrial metabolism and NMR spectroscopy would be useful.  Enthusiasm is a key criterion as many aspects can be taught!

The candidate for this post must have a recent PhD in a relevant biological subject and up to 2 years post-doctoral experience.  They should have an interest, as well as track record, in in vivo models of heart failure and an interest in metabolic biochemistry/physiology. Appointment will be made to either the Research Associate scale or Research Fellow – depending on age and experience.  A willingness to work with animals is essential for this role and applicants should either hold, or if appointed be willing to obtain with the support of the department, a Home Office Personal License. An ideal candidate should also have experience and knowledge in other standard cell biology techniques and protein biochemistry.

This is a full-time post (37.5 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract for 3 years after the start date.

Research staff at King’s are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the  Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade 7. Visit the  Centre for Research Staff Development for more information.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Undergraduate degree in appropriate biological science
2. PhD qualified in relevant subject
3. Willingness to work with animal models of disease
4. Specifically, experience (or a skill set that allows rapid assimilation) of small animal models of heart failure including methods for assessing cardiac function i.e. echocardiography.
5. Detailed knowledge of mitochondrial metabolism and/or basic cellular physiology and cell biology.
6. Basic laboratory skills including Western blotting, protein biochemistry etc.
7. Able to work both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team
8. Good communication and interpersonal skills

Desirable criteria

1. Experience in small animal isolated heart perfusion.
2. Experience in cell culture/freshly isolated primary cells.
3. Knowledge and experience in mitochondrial metabolism and its assessment.
4. NMR spectroscopy.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further Information 

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

As part of this commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and through this appointment process, it is our aim to develop candidate pools that include applicants from all backgrounds and communities.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

Interviews are due to be held in September.