Research Technician - Cutaneous Medicine Antibody Discovery

Guy’s Hospital
Research Technician - Cutaneous Medicine Antibody Discovery
Salary  £30,634 - £40,406 inc. HCA
2 Year Fixed Term Contract
Full Time

The NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London

Guy's and St Thomas' is one of the largest hospital trusts in the country, with a staff of almost 12,000, a turnover of over £1 billion and one million patient contacts a year. The trust is part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre, a pioneering collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts. As one of only 5 AHSCs in the UK, it consists of our Trust, King's College London, and King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.

The main duties of the research technician will include working on the preparation and processing of patient and healthy volunteer specimens for use in this study using techniques including immunomagnetic and flow cytometric separation methods and evaluations as well as flow sorting of human immune cells such as B lymphocytes, and also tumour cells. Downstream of these activities, the post holder is expected to contribute in cell culturing of these specimens, as well as extraction of RNA using molecular biology techniques such as RT PCR. The post holder will also contribute to the translational research activities of a dedicated research associate in running cell-based functional and ELISA assays and studying antibodies in disease-relevant model systems developed by the team. There will be an opportunity to participate in further translational research activities using immunohistochemical techniques to demonstrate antibody reactivity and/or protein expression, which may provide additional information on prognosis and likelihood of response to treatment. All tasks will be carried out to the highest quality and within the guidelines set out by our stringent ethics procedures.

The successful candidate is expected to have a BSc (Hons) in a Biomedical/Biological Science discipline and experience and keen interest in discovery and evaluation of cancer therapeutics. Expertise should ideally include immune and tumour cell-based techniques, such as deriving single cell preparations from specimens, primary cell isolation and purification, immunomagnetic cell separation and flow cytometric techniques. They should also posess expertise in ex vivo culturing of primary cells, transfection of competent cells as well as experience/exposure to techniques employed in molecular pathology/ molecular biology e.g. RNA/DNA extraction, RT PCR etc. Additionally, the postholder should demonstrate knowledge and experience in antibody/protein purification techniques, functional cell-based and ELISA assays and related disease-relevant model systems and be familiar with formulation of SOPs, COSHH/Health and Safety policies.



For further information contact Dr Sophia N Karagiannis email: sophia.karagiannis@kcl.ac.uk. Further information relating to the BRC can be found at http://www.biomedicalresearchcentre.org.