King's College London

About us

The Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences (NMES) comprises Chemistry, Engineering, Informatics, Mathematics, and Physics – all departments highly rated in research activities and a wide-ranging portfolio of education programmes.

Celebrating diversity and supporting staff is important to us and we offer a range of provision including flexible working, caring support (including a Parenting and Carers Fund and the  Carer’s Career Development Fund), training, and a variety of diversity and inclusion networks. Staff can apply for flexible working to help them balance the demands of their professional and personal commitments and we offer comprehensive leave policies for parental, adoption, surrogacy, dependant and shared leave.

The university is making investment in NMES and both student and staff numbers are growing. Our staff come from over 45 countries and 56% of our students are from outside the UK. Principally located on the Strand Campus in the heart of central London, further details available at  www.kcl.ac.uk/nms.

The study of Physics at King's dates back to the foundation of the College in 1829. The Department is currently undergoing significant growth with substantial investment in new appointments, research infrastructure and laboratory space refurbishment. We offer a range of UG courses in both three-year (BSc) and 4-year (MSci) versions as well as MSc and PhD programmes.

Further information may be found at: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/physics 

About the role

We are seeking to appoint a biophysicist or a cell/molecular biologist (preferably with a PhD in Physics, Cell/Molecular Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Bioengineering or related disciplines) with proved experience in any area of mechanobiology.

This project aims to investigate the molecular mechanisms by which extracellular mechanical forces travel long distances inside the cell to reach the nucleus on biologically-relevant timescales, and how mechanical forces activate force-induced transcriptional programmes. 

The project can be attacked from different perspectives (single molecule, single cell, or tissue level) but in all cases requires extensive experience in the relevant mechanical techniques, according to each relevant length-scale. The project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The project will be developed between the Francis Crick Institute and the Department of Physics at King’s College London

This is a full time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered an a fixed term contract until 31/12/25.

About you

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

Essential criteria

1.       Hold a PhD in Biophysics, Physical Chemistry, Cell/Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Bioengineering or equivalent

2.       Extensive demonstrable experience with mechanobiology, although we are open to different length-scales (molecular, cellular, tissue) and with the mastering of the relevant related techniques.

3.       Programming skills/quantitative approaches

4.       Experience in student supervision, grant writing and project design

Desirable criteria

1.       Experience in protein design, cloning, expression and purification

2.       Experience in Cell Biology (Cell culture, transfections, CRISPR, etc.)

3.       Experience with single molecule mechanics (AFM, magnetic tweezers, optical tweezers)

4.       Experience with cell mechanics (AFM, Cell Magnetic tweezers, cyclic stretching, microfluidics, etc) experiments

5.       Experience with confocal/spinning disk microscopy

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “Apply Now”. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

* Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6.

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.

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