Life Science Events

The Pirbright Institute is a unique national centre that works through its highly innovative fundamental and applied bioscience to enhance the UK capability to contain, control, and eliminate viral diseases of animals and viruses that spread from animals to humans. We thereby support the competitiveness of UK livestock and poultry producers, and improve the health and quality of life of both animals and people.

The Pirbright Institute is currently situated on two campuses, Pirbright Laboratory in Surrey and Compton Laboratory in Berkshire. The process of transferring Compton activities to Pirbright is underway.

This post is based at Pirbright and is part of a grant awarded for ‘Developing rapid responses to emerging virus infections of Poultry’. The project examines the role of innate immune responses that regulate virus replication in avian cells and will employ various techniques including RNAi-based global gene silencing and genome editing tools to identify determinants of viral resistance/susceptibility of cell types.

Organisation Position: This post is within the Avian Viral Diseases (AVD) programme and will report to the Group Leader of Avian Oncogenic Viruses.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Responsible for meeting the objectives of the Project 1644, including:

• Developing/applying global/targeted gene silencing tools
• The generation of recombinant avian viruses expressing marker genes
• Global analysis NGS data
• Application of genome editing tools
• 70%

Responsible for advancing research in Viral Oncogenesis group, including:

• Developing grant proposals
• Working with grant collaborators
• Delivering reports/publications/patent applications
• 30%

This job description is only an outline of the tasks required.

Limited Term contract, funding until 03/03/18. Annual leave – 25 days plus 10.5 public/privilege days. Subsidised child care, staff restaurant, free parking

Pension: Qualifying staff are enrolled into the Pirbright Institute Group Personal Pension Scheme (subject to age/earnings) administered by Aviva.

Additional Information

• Offers are subject to security screening, health clearance, satisfactory references, and continued right to work and remain in the UK.
• The Institute conducts research on several virus diseases which are highly infectious to livestock; compliance with the Disease Security Regulations is an essential requirement, more information on application.
• Where English is not the applicant’s first language, they must prove their ability to communicate in English to the Institute’s required standard.

Interview: TBC

How to Apply: To apply for this vacancy please use our application form (standalone CVs cannot be accepted) via The Pirbright Institute website: http://www.pirbright.ac.uk/jobs/Jobs.aspx (job reference 15P-37).

Person Specification

Qualifications/Experience

Essential

• PhD in virology, cell biology or immunology (s)
• Relevant post-qualifying bench experience (s)
• Excellent research productivity (s)
• Experience in gene silencing technologies (i)

Specific skills

Essential

• Experience in science management (i)
• Experience of change management (i)
• Excellent communication skills (i)
• Leadership qualities (i)

Personal Skills

Essential

• Time management (i)
• Reliability under pressure (i)
• Decision making, problem solving (i)
• Ability to delegate (i)
• Negotiation skills (i)
• Business planning (i)

Special Requirements

Essential

• Flexibility regarding working hours/travel (i)

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