King's College London

About Us

As a research associate, the post holder will be required to provide high level intellectual and technical support to the experimental work being undertaken on project(s) under the supervision of Dr Sheeba Irshad.  Dr Sheeba Irshad is a medical oncologist with an interest in investigating the antigenic drivers of immune response in chemotherapy resistant breast cancers. Laboratory work will take place in Dr Irshad’s laboratory within the school of cancer and pharmaceutical sciences, Innovation Hub laboratories.

This post holder will work closely with colleagues working with the Breast Cancer Now Research Centre at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR, Prof Andrew Tutt’s team) working alongside other wet lab, in-vivo, histopathology and bioinformatics teams.   

About The Role

The post holder will join the translational cancer immunology research group led by Professor Sheeba Irshad within the School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences at King’s College London. The successful candidate will play a key role in driving translational and mechanistic studies focused on tumour–immune interactions and immune resistance in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC).

The position is embedded within the Breast Cancer Now Research Unit programme focused on developing novel immunotherapeutic strategies for treatment-resistant TNBC, with a particular emphasis investigating oncolytic viral-mediated dendritic cell activation, antigen presentation and anti-tumour immunity.

Working closely with collaborators across King’s College London, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), the post holder will lead and support experimental studies integrating patient-derived samples, advanced immune profiling, ex vivo organoid-immune co-culture systems and in vivo translational models.

The role offers an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated postdoctoral scientist to contribute intellectually and experimentally to the development of next-generation immunotherapeutic approaches for chemotherapy-immunotherapy resistant breast cancers within a highly collaborative translational research environment.

This is a full time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 31-Jul-2028.

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 cancer immunology or similar  
2. Strong experimental experience in cancer immunology and translational immunology research  
3. Experience in high-dimensional immune profiling approaches including flow cytometry and/or mass cytometry (CyTOF) 
4. Experience with in vitro and ex vivo immunological assays, including tumour–immune co-culture systems and/or 3D organoid models 
5. Experience working with advanced imaging or spatial profiling methodologies relevant to tumour immunology 
6. Strong understanding of tumour–immune interactions, mechanisms of immune evasion and immunotherapy approaches in cancer 
7. Evidence of scientific productivity, including peer-reviewed publications and presentation of research findings 
8. Ability to work independently and contribute intellectually to experimental design, data interpretation and hypothesis generation within multidisciplinary translational research teams

Desirable criteria

1. Experience working with oncolytic viral therapy, dendritic cell biology or antigen presentation pathways  
2. Experience with multiplex imaging, spatial biology platforms or single-cell profiling technologies
3. Experience with murine in vivo cancer models
4. Experience analysing or integrating translational molecular datasets
5. Track record of collaborative research within multidisciplinary translational cancer programmes

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

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.