Vacancy: Research Fellow in Translational Radiopharmacy - INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY (King’s College London)

Research Fellow in Translational Radiopharmacy - INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY at King’s College London

Closing Date: 08 February 2022

Location: Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, King’s College London

Specific unit / Sub department: Imaging Chemistry & Biology

Salary: (inclusive of London allowance) Grade 7, £46,934 per annum

Fixed Term: Fixed-term contract from 1st April 2022 until 30 September 2024

Contact person & details: Michelle Ma, michelle.ma@kcl.ac.uk

Job description

NCITA and CRUK translational imaging role (3 days per week)

The National Cancer Imaging Translational Accelerator, funded by Cancer Research UK, addresses the gaps in translation of imaging biomarkers either as tools for clinical trials or to aid clinical decision making. NCITA brings together seven of the leading cancer imaging centres (Cambridge, Imperial, ICR, KCL, Manchester, Oxford and UCL) through a network of imaging dedicated cross-institutional infrastructure.
NCITA will establish a fast and robust cross-institutional pipeline to produce quality assured locked down Imaging Biomarkers (IB): both for drug discovery within pharma clinical trials leading to more efficient development of cancer therapies; and practice changing paradigms within the NHS for areas of unmet clinical need. More specifically, the network will:
  • Drive collective innovation – harnessing multicentre expertise to develop new IBs
  • Ensure highest quality – through focussing imaging specific expertise towards quality assurance/control and establishing ‘certification’ of IBs.
  • Provide data repository and enable data sharing – to facilitate imaging trials, lock-down processing pipelines, develop image analysis methods challenges and big data research.
  • Improve efficiency and reduce administrative burden – by establishing a unified cross- institutional contract and imaging trials unit to expedite set-up and delivery of studies
  • Create sustainability – through a financial model that off-sets costs and makes NCITA available to external academic institutions and pharma; and by continuous training of NCITA staff and the next generation of imaging scientists.
The post holder will be a radiopharmacist or radiochemist and part of the QA/QC support unit of the NCITA network
  • The QA/QC unit will support development of IBs and radiotracers from first-in-man application to achieving multi-site reproducibility assessment. The QA/QC Unit will conduct evidence assessment, technical validation, biological validation with clinical samples, single centre repeatability, multi-centre reproducibility and staged IB lock down (acquisition and processing).
  • The postholder will be involved with translation of IBs and radiotracers from lab-based preparation to GMP production for clinical trials. In some cases this may involve pre-clinical studies such as development of radiolabelling methods, quality control and in vitro and in vivo testing of emerging cancer tracers (e.g. using nanoSPECT and nanoPET imaging). The data generated will support regulatory approval for clinical translation.
  • The post-holder will line manage a research assistant/ research associate working on translational projects.
  • The post holder will work as part of the NCITA QA/QC Unit and be accountable to the NCITA QA/QC Unit manager based at Imperial for all QA/QC Unit specific tasks.
  • The post holder will prioritise QA/QC Unit specific tasks over other duties as directed by the QA/QC Unit manager.
  • The post holder will be based at St Thomas’ Hospital but will travel to and support all sites in the network as needed.
  • The QA/QC unit will work closely with the NCITA Trials and Repository Units to support delivery of multi-centre imaging studies.
  • The post holder will liaise with collaborating clinicians and industry and relevant CRUK offices (e.g. Commercial Partnerships previously known as CRT) for IP and licensing and translation and commercialisation.
  • The post holder will be involved in funding applications to support translational activities.
Radionuclides for Health UK Role (2 days per week)
Radionuclides for Health UK aims to highlight the need for a UK supply of radionuclides used in health and medicine and to build support for re-establishing the domestic supply. The main (but not exclusive) focus is radionuclides for use in molecular radiotherapy of cancer (i.e. injection of radioactive substances for therapeutic effect) and their diagnostic partner radionuclides for cancer imaging.
This advocacy project is funded through a Queen Mary University of London Impact Award and brings together Barts Cancer Institute (Queen Mary) and King’s College London through Cancer Research UK (CRUK) RadNet City of London and the MITHRAS program. The project is carried out in partnership with the UK National Nuclear Laboratory. We are working with The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, the Nuclear Industry Association and other organisations such as the British Nuclear Medicine Society and NCRI CTRad.
This project has the potential to achieve multiple different types of impact, which are of strategic national importance. These include influencing government policy to fund the infrastructure needed to participate in and benefit from the projected growth in radiotheranostics that will drive the nuclear medicine market for the next decades, and coordinating and connecting radionuclide users and suppliers.
The economic impacts that arise from government investment in infrastructure and job creation will be felt in the communities that host the new infrastructure, as well as in UK and global radionuclide sales and UK pharmaceutical manufacturing. Ready availability of radionuclides will stimulate research and research funding with new areas of academic research being opened up. Health impacts will be due to making new therapies available in the UK and pharmaceutical companies being able to run clinical trials of new molecular radiotherapy agents as well as routine application of molecular radiotherapies in UK patients using UK supply. In addition, domestic supply of diagnostic radionuclides will also be assured.
The post holder will be a radiochemist with translational research experience and will hold an honorary contract with Queen Mary University London. They will work towards the longer term objectives as outlined above and also contribute to the first year objectives (up to April 2022) as outlined below:
  1. Creation of an active, responsive and vociferous UK network of researchers and clinicians in the field of molecular radiotherapy with excellent links with existing EU and US radionuclides networks ( already initiated, ongoing). Included in this is an MRT working group within CRUK RadNet to forge collaborations across the RadNet network.
  2. In collaboration with the BNMS, publication of the first comprehensive survey of radionuclide usage in the UK since the 2003/2004 BNMS survey.
  3. Produce 3 reports on radionuclide supply from different sources
  4. UK radionuclide supply from nuclear waste
  5. UK radionuclide supply: reactor-based radionuclides
  6. UK radionuclide supply: high energy accelerator-based radionuclides
  7. At least 2 academic institutions working with material produced from nuclear waste at NNL
  8. In collaboration with other stakeholders, produce a joint report on the future UK supply of radionuclides to make the case for government investment
This post will be offered on an a fixed-term contract from 1st April 2022 until 30 September 2024
This is a full-time post
Key Responsibilities
NCITA Role (3 days per week)
• Development and validation of GMP radiochemistry with positron-emitting and gamma-emitting radionuclides.
• Developing user-friendly and robust radiochemical quality control methodology
• In vitro and in vivo experiments using tissue culture and small animal imaging.
• Accurate and comprehensive record keeping and robust documentation of data acquisition.
• Participating at NCITA network meetings and QC/QA meetings across the network.
• Liaising with regulatory bodies (particularly MHRA, ARSAC) to seek advice and gain approval
• Supporting other network members in production of GMP quality radiopharmaceuticals to uniform standards.
• Participating at conferences (national, international and internal conferences), including presenting posters and oral presentations.
• Prepare regulatory documentation, tracer production SOPs and other GMP documentation related to the new IBs in collaboration with supervisors and other participants in the network.
• Design and undertake experiments independently as well as in collaboration with others.
• Line-management of a research assistant/research associate working on translational projects.
• Supervise, train and assist junior laboratory members.
• Pro-actively liaise with collaborating clinicians and industry and relevant CRUK offices (e.g. Commercial Partnerships previously known as CRT) for IP and licensing and translation and commercialisation, including developing new collaborations
• Initiate and participate in public engagement activities on behalf of the network
• Participate in teaching and training of undergraduates and postgraduates
• Any other necessary duties consistent with the nature and grade of the post, including participation in shared roles of laboratory management and maintaining a safe laboratory environment.
Radionuclides for Health UK role (2 days per week)
• Proactively lead, coordinate and contribute to creation of an active, responsive and vociferous UK network of researchers and clinicians in the field of molecular radiotherapy.
• Liaise and collaborate with the key partners and new participants on the project: UK National Nuclear Laboratory. The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. The Nuclear Industry Association as well as other organisations such as the British Nuclear Medicine Society and NCRI CTRad.
• Design, create, administer, disseminate and analyse surveys of the UK nuclear medicine, radionuclides and molecular radiotherapy community.
• Plan, chair where necessary and contribute to workshops about radionuclide supply and write reports on the outcomes of these workshops.
• Write reports on key areas of radionuclide supply to support funding bids in the areas of radionuclides from nuclear waste, accelerator-produced radionuclides and reactor-produced radionuclides.
• Take advantage of government commissioned small projects, providing a rapid response to requests and obtaining extra funding for the project.
• Support and/or lead funding applications to UKRI and CRUK for radioisotopes related projects going forward.
• Participating and advocating at conferences (national, international and internal conferences), including presenting posters and oral presentations.
• Initiate and participate in public engagement activities on behalf of the network
• Participate in teaching and training of postgraduates.
• Any other necessary duties consistent with the nature and grade of the post.
The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.
Skills, knowledge, and experience
Essential criteria
1. PhD awarded in one or more of the following fields: pharmacy, radiopharmacy, radiochemistry
2. Postdoctoral experience in one or more of the following fields: radiochemistry, radiopharmacy, radionuclide imaging/nuclear medicine, molecular imaging
3. Knowledge of regulatory aspects and quality assurance aspects of radiopharmacy and radiochemistry
4. Experience in radiopharmaceutical chemistry and safe handling of medical radionuclides including gamma and positron emitters
5. Experience in developing GMP quality radiopharmaceuticals for human use, and the associated documentation
6. Experience in designing and executing complex experiments, and analysis and interpretation of experimental data
7. Experience in project management and leadership, including experience working in and communicating effectively with a multidisciplinary team
8. Supporting and line managing others including less experienced colleagues and students effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team
9. Collaboration with preclinical and clinical groups, industry collaborators and other project partners and experience of developing novel tracers from de-novo synthesis to clinical studies.
10. Proven experience of preparation of academic manuscripts for high impact factor journals and presenting research in academic environments (conferences, meetings)
Desirable criteria
1. Skills in small animal handling and in vivo experimentation
2. Experience in small animal experiments, including imaging
3. Experience of applying for grant funding and writing grant applications
4. Experience of successful preparation of regulatory documentation, SOPs and academic manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals, grant applications and/or patent applications

For further details and to apply click here.