31 Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

The Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge seeks Expressions of Interest from early career researchers who wish to be sponsored for externally funded fellowships that will allow them to start an independent research group in our Department.

We offer a programme of support that will help you to establish you as an independent academic researcher, including assistance with your fellowship application, setting up your lab and recruiting personnel, as well as mentoring and training to help you develop your career. Research fellows will also have access to the comprehensive package of ongoing support available from the School of Biological Sciences

We are seeking an enthusiastic, motivated individual for a position in the group of Professor Mike Weekes, Department of Medicine in the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. You will join an exciting research programme investigating novel aspects of foreign DNA sensing and signaling that we have recently discovered. This post will involve the use of cutting edge proteomic and biochemical techniques.

This position is available for an immediate appointment. Candidates must either have a PhD in a relevant biological subject, or have submitted or about to submit their PhD thesis. Candidates must also have demonstrable expertise in virology, cell biology and/or molecular biology. Additional training in proteomics will be provided. Relevant post-doctoral experience is desirable. High quality peer-reviewed publications and a keen interest in viral/cellular regulation are essential.

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Dr Alexander Jones’ Group at the Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge University. The aim of this position is to reprogram auxin patterns in plants to reveal the functions of specific cellular and subcellular auxin pools.

The plant hormone auxin is a molecular signal that somehow weaves disparate cells, tissues and organs into the patterns of plant development. This feat is even more impressive considering plant development is continuously repatterning to match environmental dynamics. This post takes the critical step of engineering changes to auxin dynamics revealed using novel FRET biosensors engineered by the Jones group. This will involve precise redistribution of auxin in space and time using existing tools and developing entirely new ones.

The role is part of the ERC-funded STARMORPH project, and the post holder will join an international consortium to unravel SpatioTemporal Auxin Redistribution for Morphogenesis using the apical hook as developmental model. If successful, this role will illuminate the threads of auxin mediated morphogenesis while also delivering advanced gene regulation switches for all fields.

We are excited to announce an exceptional opportunity to advance the field of 3D video content evaluation and immersive experiences. Be at the forefront of developing groundbreaking metrics and visual models to predict quality and comfort in next-generation 3D, AR, and VR displays.

As part of our research group creators of leading perceptual metrics such as HDR-VDP, FovVideoVDP, and ColorVideoVDP you’ll focus on automated solutions that detect and quantify visual artifacts, depth errors, and overall 3D content quality. Your work can be instrumental in shaping how immersive media is experienced by millions.

We are currently seeking a postdoctoral research associate (PDRA) to join the group of Professor Oren Scherman in the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis within the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry on a multidisciplinary project funded by an ERC Proof of Concept grant (AEROBEST). We are seeking a motivated and talented PDRA to join our dynamic team to further develop groundbreaking research on pyridinium-based electrolytes for long duration energy storage and associated technologies (see Nature, 2023, 623, 949-955, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 8791-8796, Nat. Nanotechnol., 2021, 16, 1121-1129, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2020, 59, 15963-15967, Chem, 2020, 6, 1819-1830). This role focuses on advancing our understanding of redox processes and mechanisms that affect air tolerance in flow-battery systems. The successful candidate will play a critical role in designing, characterising, and optimising electrolyte systems to improve energy storage performance and longevity. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the next generation of energy storage technologies that have significant potential for real-world impact.

Applications are invited for a post-doctoral research associate to join the group of Prof. Alexander Forse at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. This project seeks to understand the fundamentals of supercapacitor energy storage devices, using metal-organic frameworks as model electrode materials with well-defined structures.

Research in the Forse group centers around the development of new materials for climate change mitigation. Supercapacitors are fast-charging energy storage devices that are complementary to batteries. The overarching aim of this post-doctoral position is to understand how supercapacitors work and improve their performance.

Day to day, the project will involve electrode synthesis/fabrication, electrochemistry experiments, data analysis and interpretation, and working with and mentoring PhD and Masters level students. The successful applicant will benefit from access to state-of-the-art gas adsorption instruments, potentiostats, NMR spectrometers, and wet-lab space, as required for this project. The successful candidate will be responsible for managing electrochemistry equipment in the Forse Group, and will coordinate fortnightly subgroup meetings on energy storage.

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) to join the BioElectronic Systems Technology Group and work on the ERC CODEBREAKER project, a cutting-edge initiative aimed at developing a conformal electronic device toolkit to interface with the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and elucidate functional pathways of the gut-brain axis (GBA) in health and disease.

The project will build on recent technological advances in the group to enable unparalleled monitoring of GI function, including enteric nervous system (ENS) activity. Advanced monitoring techniques will be applied across a range of biological models from advanced tissue-engineered systems to perfused ex vivo tissues and in vivo experiments depending on the retention of functionality. These platforms will provide spatio-temporal insights into GI physiology and its systemic effects, with potential applications in diagnostics, therapeutics, and fundamental neuroscience.

We are seeking a highly motivated and enthusiastic candidate with a PhD in enteric neurobiology. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience working with the ENS and a deep knowledge of the field. A Home Office Personal Licence for mouse work is essential, along with strong experimental skills including husbandry, tissue dissection, and in vivo assays. Expertise in ENS-specific techniques such as gut dissections, physiological assays, immunostaining, spatial transcriptomics, sequencing, electrophysiology, and microscopy is required. Experience with confocal, light sheet, and 2-photon microscopy applied to ENS questions is essential, as is proficiency in image analysis.

Applicants are invited to apply for a position in the group of Dr. Mariana Rossi. The candidate will be work on topics related to the ERC-Consolidator Grant QUADYMM: https://www.mpsd.mpg.de/921666/2024-12-erc-rossi

The candidate will perform simulations of confined molecular materials and develop techniques to simulate quantum nuclear dynamics including dissipative non-adiabatic effects. Areas of application will include water and aromatic molecules at interfaces, in and out of equilibrium.

We are looking for highly qualified candidates with experience in the field of machine-learning for atomistic simulations, molecular dynamics techniques and code development. Experience with the electronic-structure code FHI-aims is beneficial.

The candidate should have (or be about to obtain) a PhD in the fields of Physics, Chemistry or Materials Science. Successful candidates will show proficiency in scientific programming and mathematics, as well as a strong background in theoretical and computational solid-state physics, physical chemistry or chemical physics.

Applications are invited for a Research Associate at the new Bennett School of Public Policy (BSPP) in the Faculty of Human, Social and Political Science. The start date for this role will be January 2026.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Bennett School of Public Policy (BSPP) at its inception https://www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/. The BSPP, part of the Faculty of Human, Social and Political Science, has an ambitious growth plan including launching a new M.Phil in Digital Policy alongside an expanded M.Phil in Public Policy, and the development of a new PhD programme. It is led by its inaugural Director Professor Michael Kenny and Professor Diane Coyle, the Bennett Professor of Public Policy.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a highly motivated Research Associate to join the Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology (CCGE) at the Department of Public Health & Primary Care, University of Cambridge, to contribute to a new international study: the NEMO (Novel Early Markers of Ovarian Cancer) study, funded by Cancer Research UK’s Alliance for Cancer Early Detection (ACED).

NEMO is a multi-centre initiative aiming to identify early molecular signatures of pre-cancerous changes in the fallopian tubes that precede the development of high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC), the most lethal form of ovarian cancer. The study will deploy state-of-the-art technologies including single-cell genomics, spatial transcriptomics, proteomics, and glycoproteomics, to characterise tissue and lavage samples at an unprecedented resolution.

Several Research Associate positions are available immediately to work on electronic devices based on two-dimensional semiconductors, funded by various grants. The projects will involve synthesis, characterisation and fabrication of devices (electronic and electrochemical) based on two-dimensional semiconductors such as MoS2 and other transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs).

Applicants should have experience in device fabrication and measurements. We encourage candidates with broad range of experience in CVD growth and mechanical transfer of 2D TMDs and their heterostructures. We will also consider candidates who have experience in making good metal/semiconductor and dielectric/semiconductor interfaces for electronic devices. Candidates with experience in making devices such as complementary field effect transistors (CFETs), tunnel FETs, ferroelectric FETs, magnetic tunnelling junctions, or photovoltaic devices are encouraged to apply. The candidate will also be expected to have competence in clean room and device fabrication using lithographic techniques. In addition, expertise in some of the following characterisation techniques is desirable: Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy, Piezoresponse Force Microscopy, low-temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy, device measurements, C-V measurements, and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy.

A six-month position is available for a full-time Research Assistant/Associate in CHERI Operating Systems who will contribute to the engineering of prototype CHERI-enabled operating systems, including support for userlevel collocated processes in the CheriBSD operating system.

The role will be within the new CHERI Research Centre (CRC), which performs CHERI-related research and facilitates industrial adoption of the CHERI technology. The successful candidate will contribute to designing, developing, and evaluating userlevel executives implementing high-performance IPC between multiple processes executing within the same address space. Target platforms will use the Arm Morello and CHERI-RISC-V architectures and microarchitectures.

(18) Postdoctoral Fellowship Position

Postdoc Fellowship Position summary/title: Research Assistant/Associate (Fixed Term) – Petrology and Geochemistry

Deadline : 19 October 2025

View details & Apply

We seek to recruit a highly enthusiastic and motivated full-time Postdoctoral Research Associate to work on a British Heart Foundation-funded translational project in the Wilson group in the Department of Pharmacology (https://www.phar.cam.ac.uk/research/Wilson), based at the Gurdon Institute. The goal of this project is to optimise a novel, transformative cardiac regenerative therapeutic.

After a heart attack, there is an irreversible loss of cardiac tissue with ensuing heart failure. The Wilson group has pioneered the use of a novel RNA therapeutic to coax cardiomyocyte proliferation and recover cardiac function in the infarcted heart. Our strong in vitro and in vivo studies indicate a realistic potential to repair and remuscularise a damaged adult heart. This project will design and test mRNA sequence structures to enable optimal therapeutic outcomes and pioneer a transformative cardiac regeneration therapy to eventually eradicate heart failure and its complications.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the new Bennett School of Public Policy (BSPP) at its inception. The BSPP will be part of the Faculty of Human, Social and Political Science. The BSPP has an ambitious growth plan including launching a new M.Phil in Digital Policy alongside an expanded M.Phil in Public Policy, and the development of a new PhD programme. It is led by its inaugural Director Professor Michael Kenny and Professor Diane Coyle, the Bennett Professor of Public Policy.

Applications are invited for a Research Assistant/Associate position in the Bennett Institute programme, the AI & Geopolitics Project (AIxGEO), directed by Verity Harding, provides rigorous, evidence-based alternatives to prevailing narratives of zero sum technological competition. This position offers an excellent opportunity for a researcher with a background in relevant disciplines and a keen interest in global AI collaboration, governance and the intersection of AI and geopolitics, working closely with the School’s Research Director Professor Diane Coyle and AIxGEO Research Lead Dr Aleksei Turobov. This role combines rigorous academic inquiry with direct policy impact,, providing evidence-based, data-driven alternatives to competition-focused approaches. The successful candidate will also represent the AIxGEO at external events and help to organise workshops and conferences with senior individuals across the AI and geopolitical field. Applications from candidates with backgrounds in any relevant disciplines, with experience in a variety of research methods, are invited.

You will have research experience and specialist knowledge in feminist movements and organizations in India, with a focus on violence against women, with a breadth of conceptual knowledge in the sociology of contemporary Indian society and politics. You will have research expertise in intersectional feminism, feminist movements, and a deep familiarity with the debates on social and political change in post-1980 India, as evidenced through doctoral research, publications and other research outputs.

The purpose of this role is to assist with data collection and analysis for this project, including online and in-person interviews, archival research, and library research, assisting with mapping and building a database of feminist organizations in north India. The role holder will draft publications, both as a primary and secondary author, with the PI of the project, Professor Manali Desai.

Applications are invited for a Research Associate to join the Wellcome-funded project Algorithmic Kitchen: Recipes for Disability-Led Health Technology Design, led by Dr Louise Hickman at the University of Cambridge. The person appointed will support the project’s investigation into disability-led design approaches to health technology, grounded in care, interdependence, and lived experience. Start date is from 1 November 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The successful candidate will pursue high-quality research (i.e., data collection and analysis) as part of the Algorithmic Kitchen project. The project explores how disabled people, caregivers, designers, and health workers can collaboratively reimagine health technologies. Organised around two strands Friction Fiction and Algorithmic Kitchen it uses storytelling, participatory co-design, and conceptual prototyping to develop “recipes” for inclusive design and influence health tech policy and practice.

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate position available initially for 2 years within a joint EPSRC-NSF funded grant on Nanoscale spin entanglement and chemistry, ‘NanoSPINEC’. Using nanophotonic cavities, the NanoSPINEC project aims to achieve the first room-temperature measurements of spin states at the single-molecule level, leveraging them to track the formation and decay of quantum correlations in exciton singlet fission (SF) and to establish the first chemical Bell inequalities through optically-detected magnetic resonance (ODMR).

The candidate will join a dynamic and diverse team that values collaboration. The role holder will develop new experiments and analysis and drive the NanoSPINEC project. The candidate will be supported by an exciting new collaboration spanning three areas of the Cavendish Laboratories: the NanoPhotonics Centre (Dr Rakesh Arul), the Optoelectronics Group (Rao), and the AMOP group (Gangloff). For recent work see np.phy.cam.ac.uk, rao.oe.phy.cam.ac.uk, and qeg.phy.cam.ac.uk/. The NSF partner on the US is the University of California San Diego (PI: Prof. Joel Yuen-Zhou), and the project will involve close collaboration and travel to theorist collaborators there.

We are seeking a highly motivated Research Associate to join the molecular biophysics group led by Dr Katherine Stott at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, to study DNA and chromatin condensation by linker histone proteins. This project, which is funded by the BBSRC, is an exciting opportunity to use the latest biochemical, biophysical and structural biology methods to uncover the molecular mechanisms underpinning gene activity at a fundamental level.

The role holder will join a team of postdocs and students with whom they will work closely and collaboratively, while leading their side of the project. The role holder will need to demonstrate high skill levels in at least two of the following: (i) molecular biology, (ii) molecular biophysics, or (iii) structural biology (solution- or solid-state NMR, or Cryo-EM), along with a demonstrably high level of engagement and aptitude to learn new techniques (full training will be provided, where necessary). An active interest in intrinsically disordered proteins, condensates and/or chromatin biology is advantageous but not essential, as is prior experience with optical tweezers.

The MRC Biostatistics Unit is one of Europe’s leading biostatistics research institutions. Our focus is to deliver new analytical and computational strategies based on sound statistical principles for the challenging tasks facing biomedicine and public health.

This position is to work with Dr Pavel Mozgunov within the within the Efficient Study Design (ESD) research theme of the MRC Biostatistics Unit (BSU).

The post-holder will contribute to the research programme on (i) developing efficient adaptive clinical trial designs for early phase dose-finding clinical trials, (ii) developing framework for the comprehensive evaluation of trial designs based on simulations. The post-holder will also have an opportunity to contribute to the support of planning of innovative clinical trials.

Are you excited by the mechanisms of neurotransmission and behaviour and looking for a new opportunity? We are looking for an enthusiastic, inquisitive and motivated post-doctoral researcher to join the team in the Hardege lab in the Department of Zoology (https://www.hardege-lab.com/). The lab aims to understand how the function and diversity of neurotransmitter receptors is used to generate complex behaviours, including learning, in the small invertebrate model organism C. elegans.

We have recently discovered a range of novel dopamine receptors in C. elegans and found that different receptors are often expressed within a single neuron. This BBSRC-funded project aims to understand the interplay between excitatory and inhibitory metabotropic and ionotropic dopamine receptors and how they contribute to the regulation of complex behaviours.

Our lab is dedicated to understanding the neural mechanisms underlying learning and behaviour in Drosophila larvae. The primary brain structure involved in learning in Drosophila is called the mushroom bodies, which is organized into multiple functional compartments. Our lab has recently published the full connectome of the larval brain, uncovering the complex and highly recurrent connectivity map of the mushroom bodies. In addition, previous work from our lab and others has shed light on basic rules of plasticity of some of the mushroom bodies’ compartments. However, the precise functional role of each compartment remains largely unknown. This project aims to investigate learning in Drosophila larvae using natural odour paradigms. The successful candidate will employ a novel Y-maze behavioural setup to assess various learning protocols and determine how different experimental parameters influence learning performance. In parallel, the project will leverage a new imaging system to visualize activity and plasticity in mushroom body neurons in response to learning. By integrating behavioural assays with high-resolution neural imaging, this work seeks to provide deeper insight into how learning is compartmentalized within the mushroom bodies and how these circuits are modulated during experience-dependent plasticity.

The Cancer Signaling and Therapeutics Lab (https://creixell-lab.com/), led by Group Leader Dr Pau Creixell, is part of the University of Cambridge – Cambridge Institute (CI) (http://www.cruk.cam.ac.uk/), the world class institute situated on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, UK, and created by a collaboration between Cancer Research UK, Europe’s top cancer charity, with the University of Cambridge. As an integral part of the institute, our lab collaborates with over 350 researchers forming 20 groups within the institute on research ranging from basic cancer biology through translational research to clinical application. We are further supported by world-leading core facilities (https://www.cruk.cam.ac.uk/core-facilities) which researchers are encouraged to utilize to their fullest potential.

A postdoctoral position is currently available in our lab for a highly talented and motivated individual interested in developing and using our technologies, particularly peptide display, to screen tyrosine and serine protein kinases with the aim to eventually target them better. The aim would be to use the peptides as a template of how to target these kinases using small molecules. Our lab is currently developing technology that allows the screening and computational interpretation of combinatorially complete libraries of mutant protein variants. We are interested in further developing and deploying these technologies in applications ranging from signaling and therapeutics. This position is funded through the Brain Tumour Charity and is in collaboration with Professor Bill Weiss (UCSF) and Professor Kevan Shokat (UCSF) who will collaborate with their expertise in the follow-on stage of the initial peptide screening.

Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy (DCM) is a progressive spinal cord injury treated with decompression surgery. For decompression from the back of the neck, it is unclear whether additional stabilisation with rods improves recovery. The NIHR POLYFIX-DCM trial is the first major study to answer this question.

We are seeking a Research Associate to support a nested mechanistic study within the trial, investigating whether stabilisation reduces mechanical stress on the spinal cord and/or if benefits are confined to specific subgroups. This will involve developing and applying finite element models based on patient imaging and linking predicted stress with MRI markers and clinical outcomes.

The group of Florian Merkle is seeking an outstanding postdoctoral fellow to help develop models of insulin and leptin resistance in human neurons. This collaborative project is funded by NovoNordisk, providing an exciting opportunity to work with colleagues who have access to large-scale screening facilities and expertise in target discovery and drug development. In this role, your work will provide insights into metabolic disease to facilitate the discovery of new therapeutic targets and the ultimate aim of developing novel treatments for diabetes and insulin.

Your project will focus on cell populations in the hypothalamus essential for regulating food intake, which we can reliably generate from human pluripotent stem cells. These cells closely resemble their counterparts in the brain in their morphology, patterns of gene expression, and functional responses to nutrients, hormones, and drugs. We will now study their responses to the hormones insulin and leptin, and develop in vitro models of insulin resistance and leptin resistance. These models will likely not only reveal insights into their basic biology with the potential for generating high-impact publications, but will likely also generate platforms for therapeutic discovery with the potential for having a real-world impact on patients suffering from obesity and diabetes.

Applications are invited for a Postdoc MRI physicist wanted for World’s First Multi-Site PTx 7T MRI Epilepsy Trial at the University of Cambridge, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Cambridge (Up to 4 Year Fixed Term, funding in the first instance to 31st July 2029)

Your role: – Develop and optimise cutting-edge 7T MRI protocols for clinical epilepsy imaging. – Develop analysis pipelines to extract quantitative measures from our images. – Work at the intersection of physics, image analysis and clinical neurology. – Collaborate with leading clinicians, MRI physicists, and AI analysis experts. – Help turn a world-first technology into a widely-available NHS service.