A portal site for systems biology.

Department of Engineering

University of Leicester 

Salary Grade 6 - £23,692 to £27,466 per annum

Available from September 2008

Fixed term contract for 32 Months

Applications are invited for a BBSRC-funded post-doctoral research associate to join a team of researchers working on an exciting interdisciplinary Systems Biology project, based jointly at the Universities of Leicester and Aberdeen.  The PDRA at Leicester will use mathematical modelling and techniques from control engineering to investigate the way in which yeast gene expression is regulated using highly complex robust feedback control mechanisms.  The overall aim of the joint project is to make fundamental breakthroughs in the understanding of how the essential polyamine synthesis metabolic pathway is regulated.  This pathway is central to the molecular biology of polyamine metabolism, and is a key pathway in DNA silencing, protein translation and the cell cycle.  Its components are also potential targets for cancer therapeutics.

Applications are welcome from candidates with (or who are close to completing) a PhD in one or more of the following areas:  systems and control engineering, mathematics, biophysics, or systems biology.  Supervised by Dr Declan Bates, the Leicester PDRA will be based in the Systems Biology Lab (www.SBLab.org) of the internationally leading Control Systems Research Group of the Department of Engineering at the University of Leicester.  The candidate will work closely with an experimental biologist PDRA supervised by Dr Ian Stansfield and Dr. Heather Wallace at the Institute of Medical Sciences of the University of Aberdeen, to develop, validate and analyse new models of the feedback control mechanisms underlying polyamine metabolism.

Downloadable application forms and further particulars are available from www.le.ac.uk/personnel/jobs.  If you require a hard copy, please contact Personnel Services - tel: 0116 252 2758, fax: 0116 252 5140, email: recruitment3@le.ac.uk   Please note that CVs will only be accepted in support of a fully completed application form.

Closing Date: 31 August 2008

Promoting equality of opportunity throughout the University

posted 2008.07.03