Research Associate

We are seeking a motivated and collaborative individual to join the Hungry Tissue Lab, led by Dr John Robert Davis, as a Postdoctoral Research Associate on a Medical Research Council (MRC)-funded research programme. This role offers an exciting opportunity to reveal the organising principles by which the physical and metabolic landscape orchestrates the behaviours of tissues over time. By revealing these principles, the programme aims to transform our understanding of how tissues form, adapt and become disordered, laying the foundations for predicting and ultimately controlling these processes. You will combine dynamic experimental systems with live imaging and single-cell analysis to uncover the rules that shape multicellular tissues, while contributing to a dynamic and inclusive research environment.

You will be responsible for:

• Designing and building innovative experimental systems that combine tunable hydrogels and fluidic systems with live imaging to reveal how mammary epithelial tissues respond to dynamic physical and metabolic change.
• Tracking how individual cells behave and how their metabolic and mechanical states change, using quantitative image analysis and live-cell biosensors, whilst working with computational researchers to uncover the organising principles of multicellular tissues.
• Develop and test bold hypotheses about how mechanics and metabolism form a coupled system that constrains which behaviours are available to individual cells, thereby shaping how tissues form, adapt and become disordered.
• Challenge assumptions, interpret findings critically and bring your own ideas to help shape the scientific direction of an ambitious research programme.
• Help build a research culture that is fun, open, bold and curious, where ideas are shared freely, collaboration thrives and everyone is empowered to do their best science.

We welcome candidates who bring diverse perspectives, experiences, and approaches to their work.

About You

We encourage applications from individuals with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. You should demonstrate:

Essential Criteria:

• A PhD (or be close to completion) in cell biology, developmental biology, mechanobiology, biophysics or a related discipline.
• Experience in live-cell or live-tissue imaging.
• Experience of quantitative image analysis and analysing biological datasets using computational tools such as Fiji, Python, MATLAB or similar.
• The ability to think creatively, design rigorous experiments and interpret complex biological data.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work independently while collaborating effectively across experimental and computational disciplines.

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience investigating how physical or metabolic cues regulate cell behaviour or tissue organisation.
• Experience developing or applying dynamic experimental systems, including biomaterials, hydrogels, microfluidics or related approaches.
• Experience with mammalian epithelial models or advanced live-cell imaging approaches.
• Experience developing bespoke image analysis workflows or quantitative analysis pipelines.
• Evidence of scientific creativity and independence appropriate to career stage.

We value transferable skills and real-world experience as much as formal qualifications.

Our benefits include:

• Generous employer contribution pension
• 29 days annual leave plus bank holidays, along with Christmas closure
• Ride to work and EV car scheme available

For more information, please see University of Manchester Benefits. You can also find information on our Flexible and Hybrid working here.

We are an open place of enquiry and challenge. We embrace and celebrate difference, diversity and debate, and we pride ourselves on being a place of education, learning and community where we are able, within the law, to question and test received wisdom, express new ideas and explore controversial or unpopular topics and opinions. Find out more from our Freedom of Speech Policy.

Enquiries about the role, shortlisting and interviews

Name: John Robert Davis

Email Address: [email protected]

General enquiries and administrative support

[email protected]

Technical and job portal support

https://jobseekersupport.jobtrain.co.uk/support/home

This role is not eligible for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. Applicants must demonstrate the right to work in the UK.

Applications close at midnight on the closing date.

Further particulars (with person specification) linked below.