Research Assistant Job London area,Greater London England UK,Research/Development

Location: Greater London

Carola Vinuesa and Anisur Rahman are carrying out collaborative research looking at the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a systemic autoimmune disease that affects 1 in 1000 people in the UK. Ninety percent are women. Carola’s group at the Crick Institute have made important breakthroughs by studying rare monogenic forms of SLE that present in children. By transferring the same genetic abnormalities into mouse models they have shown that particular B and T cell populations and the Toll-like receptor (TLR7) pathway play a key role in pathogenesis of SLE.

Anisur is a clinical academic who has a cohort of patients with adult-onset non‑monogenic SLE. One key aim of the collaboration is to study samples derived from the patients in Anisur’s clinic to see whether the cells and autoantibodies in blood of these patients show similar properties to this in the mouse models and we have already derived some results along these lines.

The collaboration is funded by a six‑year Wellcome Trust Discovery Award and the role being advertised here is a key part of the award as it links Carola’s group at the Crick with Anisur’s group at UCL.

About the role

The post-holder will be based in the Department of Ageing, Rheumatology and Regenerative Medicine on the Fourth Floor of the Rayne Building at the UCL main campus, working with Professor Anisur Rahman but will also make frequent visits to Professor Carola Vinuesa’s group at the Francis Crick Institute. Educational facilities and meetings at both sites will be available to him/her.

The key responsibilities of the role are:

Patient recruitment and sample collection. Obtaining informed consent and coordinating the collection of samples from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and other autoimmune diseases attending UCLH clinics. Phlebotomy will not be required, as blood collection is performed by research nurses. An honorary contract with University College London Hospital will be arranged for the successful candidate.

Sample processing and cell preparation. Processing patient samples, including plasma separation, preparation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and fluorescence‑activated cell sorting (FACS) according to established protocols. Full training will be provided. This work will primarily be carried out in the Rayne laboratory.

Serological and immunological assays. Performing ELISA‑based assays to investigate the antigen‑binding properties of serum autoantibodies from patients with autoimmune diseases and healthy control groups. This work will be conducted across both the Rayne laboratory and the Francis Crick Institute.

Single‑cell and B cell repertoire analysis. Contributing to a research programme investigating B cell responses in autoimmunity using single‑cell transcriptomics and B cell receptor (BCR) repertoire analysis. This will involve flow cytometric sorting of rare B cell populations, single‑cell analyses (including RNA sequencing and RT‑PCR), high‑throughput antibody cloning and expression, affinity measurements, and bioinformatic analysis of BCR sequences to define clonal relationships and functional characteristics of autoreactive B cells.

This work will be carried out mainly in Carola Vinuesa’s laboratory at the Crick Institute.

This is a 2‑year post and is not suitable for UCL sponsorship.

About you

The post will be at research assistant level. An MSc or Honours degree in a relevant scientific discipline is required. A PhD is not required.

Essential skills:

Human samples handling
DNA, RNA, protein extraction
PCR and RT‑qPCR, molecular cloning, RNA immunoprecipitation
Cell culture, Western Blots, ELISAs
Immunohistochemistry and live cell imaging
Isolating blood and extracting PBMCs

Desirable skills:

Design antibody mutants and testing of changes in affinity
Bioinformatics to analyse BCR repertoires, BCR clonality, and single cell RNA sequencing
Human B cell cloning for plasma cells and memory B cells
CRISPR/Cas9 or similar genome editing
Spectral flow cytometric sorting
Experience in studying plasma blast responses

What we offer

This is an exciting opportunity to join a multidisciplinary team working across the Division…