King's College London

About Us

The School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine & Sciences (SCMMS) provides an outstanding multi-disciplinary environment for the pursuit of cutting-edge cardiovascular and metabolic research. 

We study the fundamental molecular, cellular, and physiological processes that underly normal and abnormal cardiovascular and metabolic function and we drive the translation of this strong basic science into advances in clinical practice to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment.  This activity provides a high-quality research and training environment for non-clinical and clinical scientists.

The School occupies facilities across the Guy’s, St Thomas’ and Denmark Hill campuses of King’s College London and comprises over 65 academic groups, hosting 400 staff and 110 PhD students. 

Our community of world-renowned researchers and educators have access to a state-of-the art core facilities and expertise, including for high-throughput screening, multimodality in vivo imaging, proteomics, integrative physiology and viral & non-viral vector production. As part of King’s Health Partners, we have an excellent environment for basic-clinical interaction and a strong focus on mentoring and career development. 

The School hosts the British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence at King's, which brings together a unique range of internationally recognised scientists and clinicians from across the School and King’s College London.

More information: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/scmms 

About The Role

Applications are invited for a talented and enthusiastic postdoctoral scientist to join Professor Cathy Shanahan’s laboratory at the School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences of King's College London. The post holder will report to Professor Cathy Shanahan and join an internationally recognised team of scientists focussing on understanding the role of smooth muscle cells in vascular calcification. This role involves the development of an engineered 3D flow system for understanding how mechanical signals impact on smooth muscle cell biology and would suit scientists with a strong engineering background and experience in organoid and extracellular matrix biology.  The successful candidate will join a research group within the BHF Centre of Research Excellence which provides an excellent highly multidisciplinary environment with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. The successful candidate will also be part of an International, LeDucq Network (COMET) focussed on discovery and translation in the field of vascular calcification.

Individuals should be committed to their own personal career development. There will be opportunities to contribute to the supervision of PhD and Masters students and other educational activities as appropriate to the stage of your career. Individuals should undertake any reasonable duties that may be relevant to the role outline and to contribute to publications arising from this research.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract for one year from start date. 

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 (8 criteria max)

1. PhD in biological engineering discipline or equivalent
2. Ability to initiate and maintain a high-quality research programme in the specified scientific area
3. Major contribution to the design and execution of an experimental research program
4. Excellent communication skills
5. Excellent interpersonal and team work skills
6. Experience with organoid and 3D culture systems
7. Experience designing and building 3D flow systems
8. Experience with programming and modelling

Desirable criteria (5 criteria max)

1. Experience culturing primary cells
2. Experience in confocal microscopy
3. Experience with extracellular matrix biology and biomaterials
4. Experience with cardiovascular research

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.

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