Research Fellow - School of Engineering Grade 7

Job Description Position Details

School of Engineering

Location:

University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £36,636 to £46,049 with potential progression once in post to £48,822

Grade: 7

Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to June 2028

Closing date: 17th September 2026

This role is part of the philanthropically funded programme to develop a rapid, highly sensitive test for early-stage bladder cancer. The multidisciplinary project involves developing methods to increase the specificity of an optical biosensor to detect bladder-cancer-associated DNA targets. The programme brings together expertise in nucleic-acid chemistry, molecular diagnostics, photonic sensing, engineering and bladder-cancer research.

The research fellow will lead the design, statistical optimisation and validation of assays for clinically relevant bladder cancer targets. Their central objective will be to develop an algorithmic workflow to detect new target sequences, achieving rapid detection at femtomolar concentrations whilst maintaining robust separation between true-positive and negative reactions. The post-holder will work closely with research fellow will work across the School of Medicine, School of Chemistry, and School of engineering to integrate the statistically optimised assay into a photonics diagnostic workflow.

• Lead the development and optimisation of biomolecular assays for bladder-cancer-associated DNA variants.
• Apply a range of algorithmic approaches to quantitative modelling to improve assay sensitivity, specificity, speed and positive-negative separation.
• Design and validate assays for single-nucleotide variants and low-abundance variant alleles in a wild-type DNA background.
• Characterise analytical performance, including limit of detection, selectivity, specificity, reproducibility, time-to-detection and false-positive behaviour.
• Translate optimised reactions from synthetic targets to urine-derived DNA.
• Collaborate with the photonic sensing and surface functionalisation teams to integrate the assay with the photonics biosensor.
• Write to publications, grant applications, intellectual-property protection, research supervision and project reporting.

The responsibilities will focus on rapidly developing robust nucleic-acid amplification assays and integrating them with the transducers used by the photonics diagnostic platform. The work will include:

• Designing oligonucleotides and biomolecular reactions for bladder-cancer-associated targets, which are being identified by the medical school.
• Develop, optimise and validate assays that provide rapid detection, very low limits of detection and clear separation between target-positive and negative reactions.
• Use structured statistical methods to study reaction variables dependence on oligonucleotide sequence and concentration, enzyme concentrations, buffer composition, temperature, incubation time and other relevant factors.
• Develop and apply statistical and ML approaches to accelerate optimisation of new biomolecular assays.
• Design and evaluate sequence-selective assays for single-nucleotide variants, including detection of low variant allele fractions in mixtures containing an excess of wild-type DNA.
• Compare and analyse amplification data from fluorescence-based with label-free photonics sensor readouts.
• Quantify assay performance using appropriate metrics, including time-to-threshold, limit of detection, sensitivity, specificity, selectivity, false-positive rate, reproducibility, dynamic range and receiver-operating-characteristic analysis.
• Investigate reaction failure modes, non‑specific amplification and matrix effects, and implement appropriate controls, contamination‑prevention procedures and troubleshooting strategies.
• Establish workflows that progress from synthetic oligonucleotides to extracted DNA, urine‑derived samples and clinically relevant materials, in accordance with ethics, biosafety and data‑governance requirements.
• Work with engineering researchers to integrate biomolecular reactions with microfluidic handling, temperature control and the optical biosensor.
• Develop…