Clinical Fellow

Job summary

The Clinical Research Fellow will be part of a national team to conduct research to provide a genomic evidence base for better blood matching and precision transfusion medicine.

The appointed research fellow will coordinate the project under the direct supervision of Dr Nicholas Gleadall (University of Cambridge/NHSBT) and with support from Dr Sara Trompeter (University College London/NHSBT/UCLH) as well as support from other clinicians, scientists and managers within NHSBT and the University of Cambridge, UCL and UCLH.

It is expected that the successful candidate will register and submit this work for a higher degree at University of Cambridge. This can be on a part-time research basis over 5 years where additional hours could be made up with clinical work.

The application will be a 2-stage process. Applicants who have been short-listed by NHSBT will also need to submit an application to the University of Cambridge. Further details will be provided to short-listed candidates.

Main duties of the job

• Determine whether the risk loci for alloantibody formation in pregnancy are transferable to transfusion recipients and transferable between individuals of different ancestry.
• Perform fine mapping of the association at the HLA locus by using the UBDT genotyping data available on all patients referred to NHSBT for testing.
• Identify common risk variants in the core genes which are implicated in regulating the immune response to red blood cell alloantigens.
• Identify key genes that govern haemoglobin concentrations that could be used to inform personalised reference ranges to guide blood donation.

About us

It takes all types of people to deliver the kind of service that saves and improves lives. At NHS Blood and Transplant, you'll join a team of more than 6,000 people who are making a genuine difference to communities, families, friends, relatives and more across the UK. We play a unique and special role in the NHS by helping people do something extraordinary- donate blood, blood products, organs, tissues, or stem cells to save someone in need. Our three core values are what set us apart. They guide and inspire everything we do. By being caring, expertly meeting the needs of our patients and our people, and accepting nothing less than the best quality, we can do extraordinary work and help our people to do something extraordinary in their career, too.

Three small words, one big difference - Caring, Expert and Quality. Together we'll save and improve more lives than ever. You will join us on our journey to create an inclusive workplace and aim to reflect the diverse communities we work with, and we positively encourage applications from all sectors of the community.