Research Fellow in the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing

Position Details

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,395 to £39,609. With potential progression once in post to £42,036 a year.

Part time post working 0.25 fte

Fixed term contract 2 years

Closing date: 14 July 2019

Due to the nature of the work undertaken in this role all successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory DBS clearance prior to appointment.

Due to the nature of the work undertaken in this role all successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory OH clearance once in post.

Role Purpose
To create and contribute to the creation of knowledge by undertaking a specified range of activities within an established research programme and/or specific research project.

The Respiratory Research laboratory is part of the Institute for Inflammation and Ageing (IIA), based within the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. The Respiratory Research group's interests include mechanisms of immune dysfunction in both acute and chronic respiratory disease, particularly neutrophil and macrophage biology.
Many patients with chronic lung diseases suffer repeated lung infections despite a high number of innate immune cells being present in their lungs, and our preliminary data suggests this is due to problems with immune cells recognising bacteria and being able to clear them by phagocytosis.

Funded by the Alpha 1 Foundation, this project aims to assess the mechanism underlying poor bacterial clearance in a lung disease called Alpha 1 Anti-trypsin Deficiency (AATD), a chronic lung disease. The study has received ethical and trust approval to recruit 100 patients and is due to start recruitment this summer.

The post holder will be expected to deliver aspects of this project, investigating mechanisms of immune dysfunction in patients with AATD as part of this study and in our on-going respiratory research. Laboratory work will be based within the respiratory research laboratory which is part of an £8M facility located within the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. The post-holder will work alongside a postdoctoral scientist, and research fellow, several clinical research fellows and Lecturers from both scientific and clinical backgrounds in the laboratory.

To this end the post holder will:

• Deliver work on our AATD project; this will be the main focus of the role.
• Assisting sample collection and processing
• Assess macrophage function using techniques including phagocytosis, reactive oxidant species production, cytokine release. Assess bacterial content of sputum
• Use techniques such as ELISA to analysis serum cytokine concentrations and cellular protein levels by western blot

Main Responsibilities
The responsibilities may include some but not all of the responsibilities outlined below.
The role will support Dr Sapey's and Dr Belchamber's research and be supervised by Dr Sapey. The post holder will be expected to participate in weekly lab meetings to discuss results and plans for moving forward.
In addition, the post holder will be expected to contribute to academic outputs including helping to draft research publications and presentation of results at meetings.

• Develop research objectives and proposals for own or joint research, with assistance of a mentor if required
• Contribute to writing bids for research funding
• Analyse and interpret data
• Apply knowledge in a way which develops new intellectual understanding
• Disseminate research findings for publication, research seminars etc
• Supervise students on research related work and provide guidance to PhD students where appropriate to the discipline
• Contribute to developing new models, techniques and methods
• Undertake management/administration arising from research
• Contribute to Departmental/School research-related activities and research-related administration
• Contribute to enterprise, business development and/or public engagement activities of manifest benefit to the College and the University, often under supervision of a project leader
• Collect research data; this may be through a variety of research methods, such as scientific experimentation, literature reviews, and research interviews *
• Present research outputs, including drafting academic publications or parts thereof, for example at seminars and as posters *
• Provide guidance, as required, to support staff and any students who may be assisting with the research *
• Isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from blood samples
• Phrodo assays to assess monocyte functioning
• Flow cytometry for markers of neutrophil function including phagocytosis analysis
• Measurement of serum cytokines by ELISA
• Analysis of relative transcript expression by QPCR
• Relative quantification of proteins by Western blot
• Deal with problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines

Scope of the Role

• Work within specified research grants and projects and contribute to writing bids
• Operate within area of specialism
• Analyse and interpret research findings and results
• Contribute to generating funding
• Contribute to licensing or spin out deals with demonstrated commercial success (such as revenues, asset or company sales, IP generated) and/or public understanding of the discipline or similar
• Management/administration processes

Planning and Organising

• Contribute to the planning and organising of the research programme and/or specific research project
• Co-ordinate own work with others to avoid conflict or duplication of effort

Decision Making

• Decide in consultation with the principal investigator as appropriate, on the most appropriate way of undertaking the specified research activities
• Decide in consultation with the principal investigator as appropriate how to analyse and interpret the data from the specified research activities
• Decide in consultation with the principal investigator as appropriate what knowledge to draw on and how to apply it to develop new intellectual understanding
• Contribute to deciding what information to include in a bid for research funding and how to present the bid to maximise the likelihood of securing the funding
• Decide in collaboration with co-authors which aspects of the research findings to include in a presentation or a publication and how to convey the findings
• Give guidance, support and advice to students on research related work including PhD students and decide the most appropriate method of providing this supervision.

Internal/External Relationships

• Liaise with research staff and support staff on research-related matters
• Liaise with external collaborators on the research, where appropriate
• Give presentations and/or contribute to presentations at national and/or international conferences
• Referee articles for peer-reviewed academic journals
• Maintain contact with (including membership of) appropriate professional bodies
• Liaise with the relevant external research community via seminars and conferences
• Participate in internal networks for the exchange of information and to form relationships for future collaboration
• Liaise with external clients of the University or members of the public

Skills and Experience

• First degree in area of specialism and normally, a higher degree relevant to research area or equivalent qualifications
• High level analytical capability
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly
• Fluency in relevant models, techniques or methods and ability to contribute to developing new ones
• Ability to assess resource requirements and use resources effectively
• Understanding of and ability to contribute to broader

Informal Queries to Liz Sapey e.sapey@bham.ac.uk