Postdoctoral position protein crystallography and higher scientific officer assay development p[...] in City of Westminster

We are seeking an enthusiastic postdoctoral training fellow in protein crystallography who will be involved in the structure determination of protein-ligand complexes, primarily by X-ray crystallography but also potentially by cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM), as part of one of the CCDD's drug discovery programmes. The postholder will be responsible for protein production and purification, protein crystallisation, structure determination by X-ray crystallography and subsequent structural analysis.

The successful candidate will be an integral member of a multidisciplinary project team within the CCDD at the ICR Sutton site, and will interact closely with biologists, computational chemists, medicinal chemists, assay scientists and structural biologists. They will have access to state-of-the-art facilities for protein production and purification, as well as biophysical characterisation and crystallisation at the Sutton site.

Additionally, the successful candidate will be part of the Division of Structural Biology, located in Chelsea, in which the structural biologists in Dr van Montfort's team are also embedded, and will have access to its state-of-the-art cryoEM facilities. These include an in-house Glacios and 30% direct access to a Titan KRIOS located at the Francis Crick Institute. Both microscopes are equipped with Falcon III detectors.

Applicants must have a PhD (or equivalent) in a biological or physical science, with demonstrable experience in X-ray crystallography and protein biochemistry. Experience in cryo-EM specimen preparation and data processing would be an advantage, though not strictly mandatory. Experience in molecular biology, protein expression and purification, as well as biophysical characterisation of protein samples would also be highly desirable.

We are also seeking a highly motivated scientist at higher scientific officer level to join the team, with expertise in assay development and screening. The successful candidate will develop and run plate-based biochemical and/or cellular screening assays to support the identification and characterisation of small-molecule inhibitors against novel cancer targets using a variety of detection technologies. The post holder will be embedded in the HDSD group and be an integral member of a multidisciplinary project team within the CCDD at the Sutton campus of the ICR. They will interact closely with biologists, computational chemists, medicinal chemists, assay scientists and structural biologists.

Key requirements for the role are significant and broad all-round laboratory experience monitoring small molecule binding and function applied to drug discovery. A good understanding of enzymology would be beneficial, as would prior use of automation equipment for liquid and compound handling used in compound profiling.

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, is one of the world's most influential cancer research institutes, with an outstanding record of achievement dating back more than 100 years. We provided the first convincing evidence that DNA damage is the basic cause of cancer, laying the foundation for the now universally accepted idea that cancer is a genetic disease. Today, The ICR leads the world at isolating cancer-related genes and discovering new targeted drugs for personalised cancer treatment.

Together with our hospital partner The Royal Marsden, we are rated in the top four centres for cancer research and treatment worldwide. As well as being a world-class institute, we are a college of the University of London. We came top in the league table of university research quality compiled from the Research Excellence Framework and second in 2021 (REF 2014 and 2021). The ICR is committed to attracting, developing and retaining the best minds in the world to join us in our mission - to make the discoveries that defeat cancer.

The Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery (CCDD), within the Division of Cancer Therapeutics, is a multidisciplinary 'bench to bedside' centre, comprising around 160 staff dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. The CCDD's exciting goal is to discover high quality small molecule drug candidates and to progress these to clinical trial. All the scientific disciplines are in place to make this possible, including medicinal chemistry, biology, structural biology, assay scientists, drug metabolism and clinical specialists.

This is an exciting and fast-moving research setup and offers the opportunity to work within a multi-disciplinary environment using state-of-the-art techniques and equipment.

Two positions are available in Dr Rob van Montfort's Hit Discovery and Structural Design (HDSD) group within the CCDD. The team uses biochemical and biophysical assays to perform small-molecule high-throughput screening and fragment-based hit discovery, coupled with X-ray crystallography to enable structure-based drug design. These methodologies are underpinned by state-of-the art protein expression, purification and biophysical characterisation capabilities, allowing for the generation of large quantities of high-quality protein targets.