Salary: £32,546 - £34,132 per annum
Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.
Closing Date: 22 April 2025
The Role
We are seeking an enthusiastic technical analyst to assist with the development of a unique online knowledge portal called CRISTAL (resourCe for Risk STratification research in Acute Leukaemia) which will host existing and future UK clinical trial datasets.
You will work as a member of the Leukaemia Research Cytogenomics Group (LRCG) in the Newcastle Translational & Clinical Research Institute at Newcastle University under the guidance of Professor Anthony Moorman and Dr Tim Newton. CRISTAL will comprise patient-level data including demographics, clinical features, treatment details, genetic/genomic characterisation, and outcome data. This unique resource will support in-depth analysis by members of the LRCG as well as approved collaborators from the leukaemia research community. In addition, an external interface will provide pertinent information to patients, clinicians, researchers, and the public. The primary responsibility the post holder will be to assist our senior database developer to create robust pipelines to extract data from existing sources and then transform and map the data to the new structure used by CRISTAL. However, depending on the skills, experience and ambition of the successful applicant there is scope to be involved in business analysis (defining the look and feel of the system), software development (using dotnet C# (Blazor)) and using cloud-based services (e.g. AWS or Azure).
The post is part of the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Experimental Medicine Award entitled “BIOINFORM: Biologically informed treatment decisions in acute leukaemia” award to Professor Moorman. The overall aim of the programme is to explore the genomic landscape of acute leukaemia and its association with clinical outcome. All the genomic datasets held by the LRCG are richly annotated with patient demographic, clinical, treatment and outcome; and correlating genetics with clinical features is a major part of our programme of research. You will work closely with internal and external collaborators who are experts in the biology and treatment of childhood and adult leukaemia to leverage our unique datasets to identify biomarkers and help improve the outcome of patients with acute leukaemia.
This is an excellent opportunity join a dynamic translational research group with a track record of improving patient diagnosis and management. You will have the opportunity to develop their technical expertise, learn new skills and progress to the next stage of their career. You will have a BSc/MSc in a relevant discipline (e.g. computing, maths, etc) or relevant experience processing and handling medical or biological data.
This appointment is on a fixed term basis from 1st May 2025 until 30th April 2028.
To apply for the position, we’ll need your CV and a cover letter outlining how you are suitable for the role using evidence to highlight how you meet the essential criteria in the knowledge, skills and experience as listed in the job description.
Informal enquiries are encouraged and can be made to Professor Anthony Moorman
Further Information about the Faculty can be found at: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/fms/ .
Key Accountabilities
Including (but not limited to):
* Although working under the guidance of the Principal Investigator and the senior developer the postholder will contribute ideas, including enhancements to the technical design and development of CRISTAL, this may include roles like Business Analysis and Software Development, thus providing substantial 'added value'
* Develop pipelines that will extract demographic, clinical, genetic, treatment and outcome data from multiple sources including databases, excel spreadsheets and plain text files. Transform the data to fit the data structure used by CRISTAL. Upload the restructured data to CRISTAL
* Undertake analysis of the research data within CRISTAL and source databases to confirm data integrity and develop systems to conduct ongoing data checks with CRISTAL
* Prepare reports for research funders, trial management groups and oversight committees
* Contribute to the research output of the group by helping to produce publications
* Contribute to the teaching within the Institute/Faculty by helping to supervise undergraduate and postgraduate students
* Develop an awareness of University structures, policies and procedures and relevant issues in the higher education, research, social and political environment
* Assist the Principal Investigator (PI) in establishing and updating all relevant legal documentation (e.g. material transfer agreements) required by the LRCG for CRISTAL
* Ensure that University policies in relation to Data Protection/Caldicott Guidelines are adhered to, including checking that all data capture systems used comply with this
* Take responsibility for identifying own learning needs, including identifying appropriate courses to ensure up to date knowledge in the regulations governing clinical research and research data
The Person
Knowledge, Skills and Experience
Essential
* Experience in handling / processing electronic data or working with databases
* Experience of Microsoft Windows applications
* High level of analytical and problem-solving capability
* Excellent communication skills and ability to communicate complex information with clarity and to encourage the commitment of others
Desirable
* Experience of software development and Cloud Computing
* Experience of working with health, patient or medical data
* Experience of working in a research environment
* Knowledge of biology, genetics or cancer
* Knowledge of University policies regarding Data Protection Act and the Caldicott Guidelines
Attributes and Behaviour
* Ability to work well as part of a team or collaborators
* Ability to rapidly acquire new skills
* Enthusiastic, well-motivated and hard working.
* Good attention to detail.
* Commitment to continued professional development.
Qualifications
* BSc or MSc in a relevant discipline (e.g. maths, data science, computing, etc) or extensive relevant experience
Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.
We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.
At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC. We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.
In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.
Requisition ID: 28065