The School of Biological Sciences is part of the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences. It is made up of three research disciplines, including Ecosystems Biology & Sustainability, Food Safety & Nutrition, and Microbes & Pathogen Biology. The Institute for Global Food Security is a designated Global Research Institute with the School of Biological Sciences and is ranked No 1 in the UK for research intensity in Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Sciences (REF 2014).

The Institute aims to develop solutions to the complex problem of delivering safe, nutritious, sustainable and authentic food supplies to the world's population. IGFS encompasses a wide range of topics including, for example, crop and animal science, food production and engineering, waste management, climate change, nutrition, human health and human rights. The Institute takes a holistic approach to food security challenges using cutting-edge research activities right across the spectrum of food security research, to span the environment-farm-food-health-economics that redefines global food security research. In 2019 the Institute and School of Biological Sciences (SoBS) have co-located in a purpose built GBP 39 million building integrating research, education, enterprise and knowledge exchange.
The Institute has flourished since establishment as a GRI in 2014 and now has 76 Principal Investigators and associated research fellows and postgraduate research students. IGFS hosted by SoBS has fuelled interdisciplinary research and impact across Schools and the opportunity to continue to build both internally across Schools and externally with major globally leading research institutions is large. The Institute also has a large industry engagement arm built around our academic base and today consists of around 90 companies.

An experienced and highly motivated Postdoctoral scientist is being sought to join Dr. Qiaozhu Su's research group based in IGFS. The recruited Postdoctoral scientist will undertake a senior role within a NICHS funded project focused on investigating the therapeutic effect of fenugreek seed in hyperlipidaemia and cardiovascular disease and the establishment of novel therapeutic biomarkers. Specific attention will be paid on investigating the lipid lowering effect of fenugreek seed on human subjects with hyperlipidaemia and establishing circulating blood non-coding microRNAs (e.g, microRNA-122) as novel therapeutic biomarkers of hyperlipidaemia. Both clinical and laboratory molecular research approaches will be applied to fulfil the proposed research in this project.

Applications are invited from enthusiastic, motivated and efficient individuals with a strong commitment to research. The successful candidate will have a demonstrated experience of management and co- ordination of human intervention or epidemiological studies as well as strong background on lipid metabolism and/or closely related fields in biomedical science with an excellent PhD degree awarded.
We offer scientific development opportunities in an international and interdisciplinary environment and support our postdoctoral fellows on career development.

Candidate Information
About the Institute
Informal enquiries may be directed to, email: Joyce Watterson j.watterson@qub.ac.uk
Further information for International Applicants
Note to EEA Applicants on Brexit