Research Associate in Global Infectious Disease Analysis (Imperial College London School of Public Health)

Job summary We are seeking a Research Associate or Fellow to work on antimicrobial resistance and genomic epidemiology of the major mould pathogen A. fumigatus. The post will be based in the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis (GIDA) within the School of Public Health at Imperial College London. The position is funded by a Wellcome Trust funded 4-year Collaborative Award, led by Prof Matthew Fisher, and will investigate the escalating... Job listing information Reference MED01859 Date posted 3 June 2020 Closing date 5 July 2020 Key information about the role Location St Mary's Campus (map) Position type Full time, fixed term Salary £40,215 – £53,988 plus benefits Department School of Public Health Category Researcher / Non Clinical Researcher Job description Job summary We are seeking a Research Associate or Fellow to work on antimicrobial resistance and genomic epidemiology of the major mould pathogen A. fumigatus. The post will be based in the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis (GIDA) within the School of Public Health at Imperial College London. The position is funded by a Wellcome Trust funded 4-year Collaborative Award, led by Prof Matthew Fisher, and will investigate the escalating incidence of drug-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus coinfections in patients with pulmonary conditions such as cystic fibrosis, influenza and COVID-19. The understanding we will achieve by this research will be critical for making informed decisions on current clinical and agricultural practice, as well as highlighting the most beneficial novel antifungal agents amongst those in current development (see Fisher et al. Worldwide emergence of resistance to antifungal drugs challenges human health and food security Science 2018). Duties and responsibilities The overarching aim of the project is to understand and quantify the risk that presents to public health within two countries, the UK and the Netherlands, where large and well characterised at-risk patient populations are showing an increasing incidence of aspergillosis that is resistant to the widely-used class of azole antifungal drugs. Our research will address the following research questions: What are the frequencies of environmentally-acquired and in-host evolved azole-resistant infections and what are the genetic backgrounds upon which they occur? Does azole-resistance combine with specific genetic backgrounds to heighten A. fumigatus fitness and virulence? Are there genetic barriers to the spread of the emerging spectrum of azole-resistant mutations? How does the emergence of azole-resistance impact the efficacy of new incoming antifungal drugs? Essential requirements You will have a PhD or equivalent in infectious disease epidemiology, bioinformatics, ecology, biostatistics or an alternative highly quantitative discipline and the appropriate technical skills/ experience required to perform all the required technical tasks for genetics/genomics, disease epidemiology, experimental design, bioinformatics (e.g. R, Python, Perl etc). Further information This post is full time and fixed term for 12 months in the first instance and will be based at the St Mary’s Campus, Paddington. Imperial College is supportive of flexible working. The College is happy to discuss the possibility of implementing such arrangements for this post, with suitably qualified people, subject to operational requirements. Should you have any queries please contact Prof Matthew Fisher via matthew.fisher@imperial.ac.uk. For technical issues when applying online please email recruitment@imperial.ac.uk. Committed to equality and valuing diversity, we are an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, a Disability Confident Employer and work in partnership with GIRES to promote respect for trans people. The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation/ The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes where their use is shown to be necessary for developing new treatments and making medical advances. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level. http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-integrity/animal-research/ If you apply for this position please say you saw it on Bioloxy

Job summary

We are seeking a Research Associate or Fellow to work on antimicrobial resistance and genomic epidemiology of the major mould pathogen A. fumigatus. The post will be based in the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis (GIDA) within the School of Public Health at Imperial College London. The position is funded by a Wellcome Trust funded 4-year Collaborative Award, led by Prof Matthew Fisher, and will investigate the escalating...

Job listing information

Reference MED01859
Date posted 3 June 2020
Closing date 5 July 2020

Key information about the role

Location St Mary's Campus (map)
Position type Full time, fixed term
Salary £40,215 – £53,988 plus benefits

Department School of Public Health
Category Researcher / Non Clinical Researcher

Job description

Job summary

The position is funded by a Wellcome Trust funded 4-year Collaborative Award, led by Prof Matthew Fisher, and will investigate the escalating incidence of drug-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus coinfections in patients with pulmonary conditions such as cystic fibrosis, influenza and COVID-19.

The understanding we will achieve by this research will be critical for making informed decisions on current clinical and agricultural practice, as well as highlighting the most beneficial novel antifungal agents amongst those in current development (see Fisher et al. Worldwide emergence of resistance to antifungal drugs challenges human health and food security Science 2018).

Duties and responsibilities

The overarching aim of the project is to understand and quantify the risk that presents to public health within two countries, the UK and the Netherlands, where large and well characterised at-risk patient populations are showing an increasing incidence of aspergillosis that is resistant to the widely-used class of azole antifungal drugs. Our research will address the following research questions:

What are the frequencies of environmentally-acquired and in-host evolved azole-resistant infections and what are the genetic backgrounds upon which they occur?
Does azole-resistance combine with specific genetic backgrounds to heighten A. fumigatus fitness and virulence?
Are there genetic barriers to the spread of the emerging spectrum of azole-resistant mutations?
How does the emergence of azole-resistance impact the efficacy of new incoming antifungal drugs?

Essential requirements

You will have a PhD or equivalent in infectious disease epidemiology, bioinformatics, ecology, biostatistics or an alternative highly quantitative discipline and the appropriate technical skills/ experience required to perform all the required technical tasks for genetics/genomics, disease epidemiology, experimental design, bioinformatics (e.g. R, Python, Perl etc).

Further information

This post is full time and fixed term for 12 months in the first instance and will be based at the St Mary’s Campus, Paddington. Imperial College is supportive of flexible working. The College is happy to discuss the possibility of implementing such arrangements for this post, with suitably qualified people, subject to operational requirements.

Should you have any queries please contact Prof Matthew Fisher via matthew.fisher@imperial.ac.uk.

For technical issues when applying online please email recruitment@imperial.ac.uk.

Committed to equality and valuing diversity, we are an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, a Disability Confident Employer and work in partnership with GIRES to promote respect for trans people.

The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation/

The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes where their use is shown to be necessary for developing new treatments and making medical advances. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level. http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-integrity/animal-research/

If you apply for this position please say you saw it on Bioloxy

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