Post-Doctoral Research Assistant - UOD

We are recruiting a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the lab of Dr. Tony Ly in the Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology at The University of Dundee.

This is a fixed-term appointment for 36 months in the first instance, with possible extension thereafter.

We are looking for a talented ambitious postdoctoral researcher to join an 8-year Wellcome-funded team project. The goal is to study a fundamental property of all phosphorylation sites, for which almost nothing is currently known: the speed at which individual molecules are phosphorylated and dephosphorylated over time.

The interdisciplinary team assembled to tackle this has expertise in kinase and phosphatase signalling (Prof Adrian Saurin, University of Dundee), mass spectrometry (Dr. Tony Ly, University of Dundee) and biochemical reconstitutions (Prof. Andrea Musacchio, Max Planck Institute, Dortmund).

These approaches will be used to study how dynamic phosphorylation sites that continually “flash” on and off regulate key signalling properties during mitosis. A major goal is to understand how these sites are important to regulate kinetochores and chromosome segregation, and why this may fail to drive cancer progression. This position is primarily to use mass spectrometry techniques, but there is the possibility for the candidate to transit between labs and learn cell biology and biochemical reconstitutions.

For further information about this position please contact Dr. Tony Ly at

Your priorities will include:

• Developing novel mass spectrometry-based approaches to measure phosphorylation dynamics
• Extracting biological insights from datasets by writing custom data analysis pipelines
• Use state-of-the‑art mass spectrometry instrumentation, including the Orbitrap Astral
• Working effectively as part of an interdisciplinary team

Who we are looking for:

• A highly-motivated and ambitious postdoctoral researcher with a passion for science.
• A candidate with a PhD in relevant scientific area, with at least one first author publication.
• A strong scientific background in proteomics and/or mass spectrometry.
• Candidates who are motivated, honest, hard-working, collaborative and possess excellent organisational skills