Research Technician

Job Description

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, creating a community where colleagues feel respected and valued. We aim to reflect the diversity of our students and communities, and to strengthen our university through collaboration and diverse perspectives, across all roles at [Employer hidden — sign up to reveal].

The Wound Healing team is embedded within the newly established £48M Wound Innovation Institute at [Employer hidden — sign up to reveal], a state-of-the-art translational research facility dedicated to accelerating discoveries in skin wound healing, chronic wounds, and age-related skin conditions toward clinical application.

This research project focuses on cellular and molecular mechanisms of skin homeostasis, fibroblast function, senescence, Nrf2 signalling, extracellular matrix remodelling, and therapeutic interventions such as Nrf2 modulation and senolytics.

This post will provide essential technical support to a funded 2-year project investigating the roles of Nrf2 in driving pro-healing secretory phenotypes versus senescence in fibroblasts, using integrated in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo models to identify pathways for enhancing wound repair while preserving long-term skin resilience during aging.

Key Responsibilities

• Maintain and perform routine primary human skin fibroblast cultures, including treatment with Nrf2 activators or inducible constitutive Nrf2 models.
• Apply and evaluate senolytic treatments to clear senescent cells, followed by assessment of senescence markers via SA-β-gal staining, qRT-PCR, and immunofluorescence.
• Collect, prepare, and test conditioned media from treated fibroblasts on normal human epidermal keratinocytes and in ex vivo human skin wound models.
• Routine histology work including tissue processing, sectioning, and staining/immunofluorescence.

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Paul Hiebert, Lecturer in Wound Healing - [Employer hidden — sign up to reveal]

Applications close at 00:01am of the closing date listed. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications. If you are interested in this role, please submit your application as early as possible.