Research Fellow in England

About the role

The project will focus on exploiting longitudinal sequencing data across the TRACERx and PEACE studies to explore cancer evolution, the importance of the immune microenvironment in driving metastatic disease progression and drug resistance. The candidate will be expected to develop and make use of bioinformatics techniques to shed light on dynamic changes in the adaptive immune system from early to late stage lung cancer leveraging existing matched primary and metastatic tumour next-generation sequencing (NGS) data from the TRACERx longitudinal lung cancer evolution and PEACE research autopsy programmes, in addition to novel sequencing approaches including single cell sequencing and T cell receptor sequencing. This project will investigate the hypothesis that pervasive tumour immune evasion and failure of the adaptive immune system are major contributors to metastatic disease.

Prof. Mariam Jamal-Hanjani is Principal Investigator of the TRACERx study at UCL, and Chief Investigator of the PEACE study. The Jamal-Hanjani Lab is a multi-disciplinary group of passionate and determined individuals who will provide the successful candidate with a stimulating and conducive environment to participate and grow as a scientist. The research in the lab is conducted in close collaboration with local and international scientists and clinicians, across the TRACERx and PEACE consortia and the CRUK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence.

The TRACERx (TRAcking lung Cancer Evolution through therapy (Rx)) study is a UK-wide lung cancer evolution programme which started in and has to date recruited over patients. It is the first longitudinal cancer genomics study that forms the first national UK consortium focused on deciphering cancer evolution over space and time. TRACERx involves multi-region sequence analyses of lung cancers (+ exomes and whole genomes in over patients) from pre-invasive through to primary and metastatic disease setting, in order to understand cancer evolutionary life histories with detailed clinical annotation. The co-primary end points of the study are to investigate the relationship between intratumour heterogeneity and clinical outcomes, and to determine the impact of cancer therapies on intratumour heterogeneity. TRACERx is supported by the excellent bioinformatics facilities already available in our Centre together with substantial investment in bioinformatics staff, data storage and computer processing power.

The PEACE (Posthumous Evaluation of Advanced Cancer Environment) study is a pan cancer national research autopsy programme in which post-mortem sampling allows access to tissue from all sites of metastasis, and to date has recruited over patients and performed over autopsies. PEACE aims to investigate the biological processes underpinning metastatic disease, including genomic and metabolic drivers of tumour dissemination, and failure of the adaptive immune system. The PEACE research autopsy study provides an unparalleled resource to explore these questions. This proposal focuses on patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who underwent extensive post-mortem sampling of tumours and normal adjacent tissue (NAT) with detailed clinical annotation, imaging, and longitudinal blood. The combination of both TRACERx and PEACE with patient co-recruitment has established an unprecedented resource of multi-regional matched primary and metastatic tissue, and therefore facilitates tissue- and blood-based analyses from diagnosis to death.

The position is fixed term for 2 years.

About you

We are seeking a collaborative and self-motivated bioinformatician post-doctoral fellow to work on cancer evolution in the context of the tumour immune microenvironment. The successful applicant should have a proven track record of publications, have previous experience with genomics data analysis, be fluent in at least one of the following programming languages: C++, Python or R, and will have strong skills in the field of genomics and desirably one or more of the following: tumour biology, ctDNA/ blood-based biomarkers, evolutionary biology, statistics and mathematics. The successful applicant for this bioinformatics position will be based within the UCL Cancer Institute. The laboratories are extremely well equipped, with an attractive collegiate working environment. The research will be conducted in close collaboration with the Thoracic Oncology department at UCLH, laboratories at both the Francis Crick Institute and UCL Cancer Institute. The successful candidate will join a successful multi-disciplinary team of cancer evolutionary biologists and lung cancer translational research clinicians where all stages of novel cancer treatment, from design of therapeutics, through pre-clinical imaging, to application in the clinic are achievable.

Appointment at Grade 7 is dependent upon having been awarded a PhD; if this is not the case, initial appointment will be at Research Assistant Grade 6B.