King's College London

About Us

The post will be based at Guy’s Campus of King’s College London. The successful candidate will work with Professor James Arnold (https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-arnold-1a0497263/) and be part of the Tumour Immunology Group (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/tumour-immunology-group).   

About The Role

A Postdoctoral Research Associate position is open in the Tumour Immunology Group at King’s College London run by Professor James Arnold (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/tumour-immunology-group). 

This project, funded by the Little Princess Trust, will focus on advancing switchable Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) technology incorporating tumour microenvironment (TME) modulating payloads. The overarching goal is to overcome the key barriers limiting CAR T-cell efficacy in solid tumours, particularly neuroblastoma, by enabling tumour-restricted activation while simultaneously modulating the TME to support robust and sustained anti-tumour responses.

A major focus of the project will be on understanding the role of macrophages within the TME, including their contribution to immune suppression, tumour progression, and resistance to immunotherapy. The successful candidate will investigate strategies to reprogramme tumour-associated macrophages and reshape the broader stromal and immune landscape, with the aim of identifying CAR T-cell approaches that are both highly effective and exhibit minimal off-tumour toxicity.

The position will be primarily based at King’s College London, Guy’s Campus, offering access to a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary research environment. The project is conducted in close collaboration with Professor John Anderson and Dr Thomas Jackson at UCL and the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, providing strong translational links to paediatric oncology and clinical application.

The project will employ a broad range of experimental approaches, including in vivo models of neuroblastoma to assess therapeutic efficacy and safety of the CAR approaches, alongside ex vivo and in vitro analyses to dissect cellular and molecular mechanisms. Techniques will include multiparametric flow cytometry, immunofluorescence and advanced imaging, transcriptomic profiling and in vivo and ex vivo CAR generation. Integration of these datasets will enable a systems-level understanding of this novel CAR T-cell approach for the treatment of neuroblastoma and guide the rational design of improved therapeutic strategies.

This project offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to a highly translational research programme aimed at developing safer and more effective CAR T-cell therapies for paediatric solid tumours, with clear potential for clinical impact.

About You

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

 Essential criteria

1. PhD qualified in relevant subject area
2. A good track record of conducting research in a relevant area
3. Research experience in a CAR-T cells and/or Tumour Immunology related project
4. To be competent in flow cytometry and/or confocal microscopy

Desirable criteria

1. To be a named author on a publication
2. Hold a UK Home Office Personal Licence

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 on 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.

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