King's College London

About Us

Based in Guy’s Hospital, the Centre for Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine acts as a focus for cutting-edge stem cell research taking place across King’s and its partner NHS Trusts, as part of King’s Health Partners. 

Our research environment is enriched by expertise in embryonic, pluripotent, and adult tissue stem cells and includes researchers studying a range of diseases such as infertility, preeclampsia, diabetes, skin fibrosis and acute liver failure.

About the role

The post holder will support the research undertaken by the Trophoblast and Human Embryo Lab, situated in the Centre for Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine at the Guy’s Hospital campus. The research focuses on elucidating mechanisms underlying human trophectoderm development.

The aim of this project is to test the functional requirement for signalling pathways in trophectoderm development. We have recently identified a number of candidate signalling pathways that we hypothesize may have an important role in trophectoderm lineage commitment and differentiation to trophoblast. We seek to understand the functional requirement for these pathways using a range of methods including cutting-edge single cell and imaging techniques. Ultimately this information will provide fundamental insights into human biology and may in the future lead to improved understanding of infertility and placenta-related complications of pregnancy.

Applicants must hold a PhD in cell, developmental or reproductive biology. Experience in human embryology and cell biology methods, including next generation sequencing is essential. The successful candidate will be highly motivated and enthusiastic with an outstanding academic track record, good communication skills and the ability to work both independently and as part of a multi-disciplinary collaborative team. 

This is a part time post (20 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract starting 1st October 2025 until 30th Sept 2026.  This position requires full-time on-site work.

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. PhD awarded in cell, developmental or reproductive biology *
2. At least one first-author publication in a scientific journal 
3. Extensive experience in human embryology including experience in micromanipulation
4. Extensive experience with CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing
5. Extensive experience culturing, differentiating and performing experimental manipulations of human stem cells.

* Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6

Desirable criteria

1. Prior experience in advanced sequencing technologies (bulk and single-cell RNA-seq) and omics analysis 
2. Prior experience in flow cytometry
3. Prior experience in 3D cell culture

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 on 15th Sept 2025. 

This post is subject to Occupational Health clearance.