Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (SBS)

Fixed-term: The funds for this post in the first instance is are available for 24 months.

The Cambridge Stem Cell Institute is an international centre of excellence for stem cell research and regenerative medicine. Scientists in the Institute collaborate to advance our knowledge of various stem cell types and to perform pioneering work in translational research areas, providing the foundation for new medical treatments (https://www.stemcells.cam.ac.uk/).

The laboratory of Dr Mekayla Storer (https://www.stemcells.cam.ac.uk/people/pi/dr-mekayla-storer) uses multidisciplinary approaches to understand why the distal portion of the digit tip is the only part of the limb that can regenerate in mammals. The key step in this process is the formation of a blastema, a transiently proliferating mass of cells that the regenerates the different cell types of the digit to replicate the original structure. Therefore the broad goal of our research is to understand which cells and molecular pathways are necessary for this process. A portion of our present research builds on our previous work (Storer et al., Dev. Cell 2020) that used high-throughput single-cell mRNA sequencing and Cre-recombinase based lineage tracing to define the transcriptional identity of the mesenchymal cells comprising the blastema and the major transitions during mammalian digit tip regeneration. We are looking for a dedicated post-doctoral researcher with computational expertise to determine which of these factors present during digit tip amputation are necessary for successful regeneration and the mechanisms that underly this process. The post holder will use single cell transcriptomics/multi-omics approaches, spatial transcriptomics and computational modelling.

https://www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/research-associate-fixed-term-ps47550