King's College London

About Us

King’s College London is an internationally renowned university delivering exceptional education and world-leading research. We are dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and to realising our vision of making the world a better place.

The Lord Lab is based in the Centre for Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine (CGTRM) within the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine. We are seeking to recruit a postdoctoral research associate to contribute to an innovative translational immunology programme led by Professor Graham Lord and funded by an industrial partner.

About the role

This postdoctoral position sits within a multidisciplinary research programme aimed at identifying therapeutic antigen targets for antibody-based treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The project leverages the immunosuppressive properties of regulatory T cells (Tregs) to develop precision medicine strategies for IBD patients, with strong commercial potential.

The successful candidate will identify the most suppressive Treg subsets within IBD lesions and translate these findings into clinically relevant applications. This will involve mapping immune subtype gene expression across publicly available datasets, validating findings in gut tissue from IBD patients, and applying spatial proteomics to localise surface markers within tissue architecture.

The role offers an exceptional opportunity to build an independent research profile at the forefront of translational immunology, collaborating closely with Professor Peter Irving, gastroenterology specialist at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, alongside immunologists and bioinformaticians. We are looking for a motivated individual with strong communication skills and a genuine enthusiasm for translational immunology research.

This is a full time (35 hours a week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 30/06/27. While some flexible or hybrid working may be considered, regular in-person onsite will be required.

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 in Immunology, Systems Immunology, or a related discipline *
2. Experience in cellular and molecular immunology techniques, including flow cytometry, ex vivo Treg expansion, intracellular cytokine assays, and functional immune assays
3. Experience working with human clinical samples
4. Experience in designing and optimising antibody panels and implement quality control for IMC
5. Experience in image analysis and single-cell multi-omic data analysis, with advanced programming skills in R and/or Python
6. Ability to work independently while contributing effectively to multidisciplinary collaborative research, with excellent communication and scientific writing skills

* 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. Post-doctoral or equivalent industry experience in immunology
2. Experience in analysing high-dimensional and spatial data, including imaging mass cytometry (IMC)
3. Experience applying machine learning methods to analyse biomedical dataset

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

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.

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 05/06/2026