Clinical Research Fellow in Experimental Functional Neurosurgery

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic clinical research fellow to work at Cardiff University’s “Advanced NeuroTherapies Research Centre (ANTC)” under the supervision of Professor Gray. Professor Gray as Cardiff University’s Professor of Functional Neurosurgery is the academic lead in neurosurgery in Wales with principal interests in basic and clinical stem cell research related to brain repair, and gene and cell-based therapies for neurological disease.

We are entering an exciting era in which disease-modifying treatments are becoming a reality for brain diseases that are currently untreatable, such as Alzheimer's and Huntington’s Diseases (HD), or limited to symptomatic approaches, such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and many forms of epilepsy (1,2). Many of the most promising emerging treatments use Advanced Therapeutic Medicinal Products (ATMPs), which involves delivering genes, RNA, or cells directly into the brain.

Main duties of the job

Effective ATMP delivery remains a key challenge due to the relative impermeability of the blood brain barrier to vascular delivery, and poor brain penetration following cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) delivery. Therefore, ATMP delivery to the brain typically requires direct neurosurgical insertion of catheters for convection enhanced delivery (CED) along a pressure gradient.

However, current early-stage CED devices, have significant limitations with respect to technical performance and future scale-up. The inability to directly visualise and quantify ATMP distribution to confirm adequate delivery is an additional key challenge. Consequently, early-phase trial failure due to ineffective and poorly quantified delivery, poses a real and significant threat to successful progression of promising ATMPs into clinical therapy.

In partnership with UK and international academic and industry collaborators, we have world-leading research excellence in neuroscience (NMHII), brain imaging for modelling and monitoring delivery (CUBRIC), developing ATMPs for brain repair (Cardiff DRI, Brain Repair Group), neuro-oncology (WCRC), and delivery device design and development (CU Engineering). Thus we are one of only a few centres worldwide with the research capacity to address the translational challenges of intra-cranial delivery by developing and investing in “Delivery Science”.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities of the Post

The Clinical Research Fellow will be involved in supporting current gene therapy surgical trials at UHW. They will also be required to undertake an original piece of research in neurosciences mainly focused on  investigating gene and drug delivery to the human brain for a wide variety of brain diseases, under the supervision of Professor William Gray, and other investigators across advanced imaging, engineering and biosciences as appropriate. It is possible for this work to become part of a submission for a higher degree (PhD) to Cardiff University dependent on acquiring further funding.

Key Responsibilities

Research

• Conduct experimental and clinical work based on the research objectives and proposals to model gene and drug delivery to the human brain.
• Maintain accurate and complete records of all findings
• Write or contribute to publications or disseminate research findings using other appropriate media.
• Make presentations at conferences or exhibit work at other appropriate events.
• Support the set-up, development and execution of clinical trials if appropriate.
• Support the delivery of the various internal/external audits.

Clinical

• To be part of a Neurosurgery Department evaluating patients for epilepsy surgery and Gene therapy trials
• To gain experience in ward management and neurosurgical operative experience.
• To share daily care of the inpatients; participate in fixed commitments in theatre and clinics as needed to support the research objectives
• This Clinical Research Fellowship does not involve on-call work or banding.

Teaching

• Contribute to teaching activities of the department.
• Supervise/ help junior students within the research group.

Others

• Identify sources of funding and contribute to the process of securing funds.
• To liaise, as appropriate, with other research groups