The School of Life Sciences is at the forefront of research in the biological sciences in the UK, coming in the top 10 in the REF 2014. We wish to appoint a Research Fellow in the role for CRISPR technology to understand the cancer genome. The RNA-guided Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindrome Repeats linked with the nuclease CAS9 (CRISPR/CAS9), can modify the genomes to pre-defined regions offering the possibility to introduce loss-of-function mutations through introduction of indels or deletions. When these modifications are applied to important genetic elements they will ultimately inform about specific gene regulation and function. Genome scale CRISPR-based approaches can modify cancer genomes to multiple sites and have been successfully used to discover new cancer gene drivers.

The post-holders will be entitled to perform new CRISPR/CAS9 genome scale approaches that have been recently developed in the laboratory to understand the nature of important genetic elements located within transcript loci. When these approaches are applied in conjunction with selective pressure related to cancer processes this can lead to discovery of genomic regions important for cancer development and progression.

Knowledge developed from these approaches can then be used to discover novel genes that can be targeted in patients in order to develop alternative avenue for therapeutic intervention.

It is required that the applicant is familiar with CRISPR Cas9, RNA molecular biology techniques including RNA immunoprecipitation, Co-IP, ChIP, and lentiviral transduction.

The post-holder will work closely with Dr Leandro Castellano at University of Sussex. During the project, we expect close collaboration with the department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London.

For informal enquiries, please contact Dr Leandro Castellano by email (L.Castellano@sussex.ac.uk)