The Medical Research Council Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC PPU) is a major research facility embedded within the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee. Our research is aimed at understanding how protein phosphorylation and ubiquitylation regulates biological processes, and how disruptions of pathways controlled by phosphorylation and/or ubiquitylation cause major human diseases such as cancer, neurodegeneration and immunity disorders.

We invite applications for a Principal Investigator either at the tenured or tenure-track level, depending on experience who have an exciting research programme aimed at understanding the role of phosphorylation and/or ubiquitylation signal transduction pathways in cell regulation and human disease. Experience in deploying mass spectrometry as a major technology is desirable, but not essential for this appointment. Applicants with expertise and interest in Chemical Biology and/or understand the molecular mechanisms of human disease would particularly suit this position.

The successful applicant will receive a portion of the core funding that the Unit receives from the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) to recruit Postdoctoral Research Assistants and Ph.D. students, a generous consumables Budget, use of the Unit's DNA cloning, Protein and Antibody Production teams and full access to the Unit's outstanding equipment and research facilities. The successful applicant would be on a tenured or tenure-track position depending on experience.

Informal enquiries may be made to the Director of the Unit, Dario Alessi via email: d.r.alessi@dundee.ac.uk

Candidate requirements include:

-PhD in a relevant subject
-Proven track record in research and an excellent publication track record.
-Significant research programme in the area of protein Phosphorylation or Ubiquitylation research that complements well other research that is on-going within the MRC-PPU.
- Ability to write successful grant applications.
-Significant knowledge of the Protein Phosphorylation and/or Ubiquitylation research area.
-Knowledge in the operation and deployment of Mass Spectrometry to undertake phosphorylation and/or ubiquitylation analysis.

The position will be on the University of Dundee Grade 8 or Grade 9 salary scale depending on experience.

For informal enquiries please contact Dario Alessi (MRC PPU Director) d.r.alessi@dundee.ac.uk

MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC PPU):

The MRC PPU is one of the world’s most renowned centres for research on protein phosphorylation and ubiquitylation. We currently have 12 research groups and ~100 staff members. Many world leading researchers in the field of signal transduction have trained within the MRC PPU. The major aims of the MRC PPU are to advance understanding of the role of protein phosphorylation and ubiquitylation in cell regulation and human disease, to facilitate the development of drugs to treat diseases caused by abnormalities in phosphorylation, to generate reagents and improve technologies. A key remit of the MRC PPU is to train the next generation of scientists who will advance our understanding in this crucial area of medical research. One of the core technologies used by all of our researchers is mass spectrometry and the MRC PPU possesses a state of the art facility equipped with a Thermo Fusion (Thermo LTQ OrbiTrap VelosPro), Thermo LTQ OrbiTrap VelosPro with ETD, an ABSciex QTrap 5500, two MALDI-ToF-ToF systems (a Bruker RapiFlex and Bruker UltraFlex), four LC-MS systems and a Thermo/Dionex U3000 system.

School of Life Sciences:

School of Life Sciences which the MRC PPU is embedded at the University of Dundee is the highest-rated for Biological Sciences in the UK by the main standard of University research performance REF2014 (http://www.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk/). Comprising about 100 research groups, the highest number of citations-per-paper for biological sciences in Europe (2013 and 2014 QS World University Rankings), over £100 million of research income in 2013 and nearly 900 staff from over 60 countries worldwide, the School enjoys a reputation as one of the most dynamic international centres for molecular cell biology, with outstanding laboratory and technology facilities. 'Lateral' and 'vertical' interactions within and between research groups are actively encouraged and 13% of publications in the past 5 years have been collaborations between two or more groups.

Division of Signal Transduction Unit:

The MRC PPU is also coordinates The Division of Signal Transduction Therapy (DSTT). This division operates as a unique collaboration between scientists in the MRC PPU (all PIs including Ronald Hay FRS Honorary PI of MRC PPU) and signalling researchers at the University of Dundee’s School of Life Sciences (Simon Arthur, Doreen Cantrell FRS, Alessio Ciulli, Paul Crocker, Grahame Hardie FRS and Carol MacKintosh) and three leading pharmaceutical companies (Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck Serono). The DSTT is widely regarded as a model for how academia should interact with industry, The DSTT operates as a simple bridging mechanism to enable our PIs working on ubiquitylation and phosphorylation to effectively interact with three major pharmaceutical companies to help accelerate the early stages of drug discovery. The DSTT model enables industrial researchers working in any of the worldwide outlets of three pharmaceutical companies to effectively work with the ~200 Dundee-based researchers that participate in the collaboration to understand the fundamentals of the molecular causes of disease that result from disruptions in protein phosphorylation and ubiquitylation networks. It is possible that some of the collaborative projects that the successful candidate would work on could be linked to DSTT and pharmaceutical company projects.