King's College London

About Us

The School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences has attracted multi-million-pound research funding and collaborates with other universities and Faculties within KCL, the NHS, charitable trusts and foundations, international Universities and industry.  

The post holder will work as part of a recently funded EPSRC Programme grant, undertaking research into Nanotheranostics, support academic and research staff and their academic collaborators in other institutions, hospitals and industry conducting this funded research and delivering outcomes that have real-world, life-improving impacts. 

About The Role

We are seeking a talented, highly motivated and enthusiastic Postdoctoral Research Associate as part of the EPSRC programme grant “Total Body Nuclear Imaging for the Development of Nanotheranostics”, This Programme involves 15 co-investigators in a range of disciplines related to PET imaging strategies for the development of healthcare nanomaterials for therapeutic and diagnostic applications, including clinical translation to benefit patients. The Programme is mainly hosted by the Research Department of Imaging Chemistry and Biology within the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences at King’s College London (KCL), with major additional contributions from colleagues at Queen Mary University of London and University of Leeds, as well as other Departments within KCL.

This role will be working within Theme 4 of the Programme: ‘Combinatory Therapy” and will involve the synthesis and assessment of novel multimodal nanomaterials for healthcare applications and radiolabel for PET imaging. The candidate will be hosted by at The Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, Faculty of Life Science & Medicine while maintaining close collaboration among other teams across UK.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Extensive experience in pharmaceutical formulations & characterisation.
• Inorganic and organic nanomaterials
• Design of combinatory therapies
• In vitro and in vivo evaluation
• Biological and small molecule therapies. 

The post holder is expected to be self-motivated; able to work independently and will have excellent written and verbal communication skills. They should be able to demonstrate a proven track record of scientific publications and presentation at international research meetings.

This is a full time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract of one year in the first instance.

About You

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

Essential criteria

1. PhD level qualified in pharmaceutical science, synthetic chemistry, nanomaterials, radiochemistry (or relevant chemistry field) at or near completion
2. Advanced knowledge in drug delivery
3. Expertise in nanomaterial characterisation
4. Advanced skills in study/experimental design and analysis of complex research data.
5. Advanced knowledge of preclinical (in vitro and/or in vivo) validation.
6. Expertise in small animal imaging
7. Possess excellent written and verbal communication skills and maintain accurate and up-to-date records of all findings, and to make these available to other members of the team
8. Excellent inter-personal skills with an ability to work co-operatively in a multidisciplinary setting, working closely with engineers, chemists and radiochemists and GMP radiopharmaceutical production facility.

Desirable criteria

1. Knowledge in handling radio-isotopes and nuclear imaging. 
2. Basic knowledge in oral drug delivery. 
3. Knowledge in 3D and 4D printing and hydrogels. 

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.

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. 

Further Information

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King’s guidance.

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 person specification section of the job description. 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.

We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

We welcome your thoughts on how organisations can create an inclusive environment, including one which supports free speech and the exchange of a wide range of ideas.  

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 23/March/2026

This post is subject to Occupational Health clearances.