About Us

The King’s Centre for Lung Health is a newly funded Centre for Translational Medicine at King’s College London. Our mission is to ‘Inspire better breathing’. We are seeking a motivated and enthusiastic member of the team to be the research assistant; to lead in the delivery of the Centre’s research plans, including developing SOPs, training students, supporting researchers across the Lung Centre. Members of the Centre include clinicians, scientists, researchers, and work across King’s Health Partners (Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital Foundation Trust (including the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital), King’s College Hospitals Foundation Trust and King’s College London).

About the role

We are looking for a Research Assistant with a biomedical science or molecular biology background. The successful candidate should be skilled, meticulous and versatile, who will support the team in the day-to-day running of the King’s Centre for Lung Health (KCLH) and the King’s Human Studies Unit (HSU). The KCLH a translational research laboratory dedicated to  research in infection, inflammation and immune-related disorders and where adherence to protocols is essential. The role involves a combination of performing laboratory technical assays, quality audits, research, R&D, routine laboratory administration and training others.

The role holder will have the responsibility for the collection and processing of clinical and academic research generated human biological specimens to support research activities across various projects and themes. You will assist the team in all laboratory operations including biological sample processing from clinical trials and academic research, method validation, various proteomic/ nucleic acid assays, cell functional assays, sample inventory and documentation audits, and general laboratory and equipment maintenance as well as troubleshooting. You will create and maintain a database of results for routine and research purposes. You will liaise with research groups within King’s Health Partners and external clients.

This is a full time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 31 March 2027.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. BSc in biological/biomedical sciences/molecular biology/ or equivalent
2. Experience working in a laboratory environment (GCP)
3. Experience of handling and processing human biological samples, including nasal lining fluid, sputum and blood
4. Tissue culture experience, particularly primary human cells and blood
5. Able to organise, analyse and summarise data, report experimental or processed sample results using a variety of scientific, word processing, spreadsheet or statistical software applications or program platforms
6. Excellent time management skills with the ability to multi-task and prioritise, and complete work within deadlines
7. Ability to follow laboratory SOPs and to be able to advise and supervise others in these tasks
8. Effective verbal and written communication

Desirable criteria

1. Experience with immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry
2. Human Tissue Act and Good Clinical Laboratory Practice training
3. Experience in western blotting, ELISA, flow cytometry, qPCR
4. Experience with next-generation sequencing
5. Sputum processing and differential cell counting

Further information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘ How we Recruit’ pages.

Interviews are due to be held in December.

We are not able to offer sponsorship for candidates who do not currently possess the right to work in the UK.

This post is subject to Occupational Health clearance.