Join us

Informal enquiries are very welcome before the formal advertisement appears. A short email describing your background and what you would want to work on is enough to start a conversation. jiabao.xu@glasgow.ac.uk.

PEENOpens 1 February 2027

Postdoctoral Research Associate in chemistry for super-resolution metabolic imaging

PEEN turns an expanded hydrogel into an active plasmonic nanoreactor, so that a standard benchtop Raman spectrometer can resolve metabolic activity at roughly 25 nm. The post is a chemistry post: the resolution comes from the sample chemistry rather than from the optics.

Essential

A PhD in chemistry, materials chemistry or a closely related discipline
Hands-on synthesis of metal nanoparticles, and experience controlling nucleation and growth in a confined or templated medium
Hydrogel or polymer chemistry, in particular swellable polyelectrolyte networks and covalent anchoring chemistry
Vibrational spectroscopy, and ideally surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) with an understanding of where enhancement comes from

Desirable

Expansion microscopy, or other protocols for retaining biomolecules through a physical expansion step
Working with microbial samples, or a willingness to learn basic microbiology alongside chemists and microbiologists
Colloid and nanoparticle characterisation, for example UV-visible spectroscopy of the plasmon band or dynamic light scattering

DECODE-FATIGUEOpens 15 January 2027

Postdoctoral Research Associate in immunology and cell biology of fatigue

DECODE-FATIGUE follows an unexpected finding: in psoriatic arthritis the extreme fatigue phenotype is biologically non-inflammatory, and carries an oxidative stress signature strongest in CD8+ T cells. The post takes that signature apart and looks for something druggable in it, so it is an immunology and cell biology post rather than a spectroscopy one.

Essential

A PhD in immunology, cell biology or a closely related discipline
PBMC isolation and handling from clinical blood samples, to a standard that holds across a multi-site cohort
Flow cytometry and fluorescence-activated cell sorting, including sorting T cell subsets to purity
Cell-based functional assays, in particular readouts of oxidative stress and mitochondrial function

Desirable

T cell biology, and CD8+ T cell biology in particular
In vitro pharmacological modulation experiments aimed at target validation
Working with clinical cohorts and the governance that comes with them
An interest in learning single-cell Raman spectroscopy; no prior spectroscopy experience is expected