AddressThe Opportunity
The Telethon Kids Cancer Centre is focused is on developing safer, more effective childhood cancer treatments to reduce, or ideally eliminate, the need for harsh chemotherapies and radiotherapies. Across the centre, we focus on the most common and most lethal cancers in kids; leukaemia, brain cancer, and sarcoma. We are closely integrated with the clinical team at the Oncology and Haematology Unit at the Perth Children’s Hospital.
In this exciting new role, you will join a dedicated team that is developing and using world-first advanced paediatric cancer mouse models, combined with cutting-edge cellular and molecular analyses, to interrogate age-dependent interactions between cancer and the developing host, and find effective and safe new treatments specific to childhood cancer. This is a program of work truly at the forefront of childhood cancer research and of strategic focus to the Telethon Kids Cancer Centre.
Reporting to the Team Head and working closely with Senior Research staff, your key responsibility will be to help drive a program of research to discover how immunotherapy and precision medicine can be used more effectively to treat paediatric cancer.
You will have the opportunity to help drive a wide range of activities, including:
Planning, designing, and undertaking high-quality cancer research projects, with careful experimental design and robust analysis, pushing the boundaries of our current knowledge. Animal work including the establishment of novel preclinical models, surgery under general anaesthesia, administration of substances to animals via multiple routes, animal imaging, welfare monitoring. Optimisation and execution of technically challenging laboratory methods and techniques, including bulk and single cell RNA-seq, CITE- seq, ATAC-seq, spatial transcriptomics, and high-dimensional flow cytometry. Contributing to the expansion of the research field and methodologies together with the Cancer Centre teams. The Supervision of PhD and Honours students including proposing research projects for students, including the teaching and training of laboratory techniques. Writing original first/senior-author publications, contribute to paper writing as co-author, mentoring students with their paper writing. Identifying and applying for funding opportunities. Organising experimental results and effectively communicating those results with team members and collaborators, at Telethon Kids Institute, clinical colleagues at Perth Children’s Hospital, and beyond.Conveniently based at Perth Children’s Hospital this position will be offered on a full-time basis for two years initially; with the possibility of extension.
About You
The ideal candidate will have a PhD degree in immunology, molecular biology, or related sciences and have expertise in the field of cancer research/immunology. We encourage both early and mid-career researchers to apply.
Along with this the ideal applicant will also be able to demonstrate the following:
Extensive experience with mouse models, current cutting-edge cell biological and immunological laboratory techniques, and ideally experience with computational analyses of high-dimensional (e.g. transcriptomic/epigenomic/proteomic) data. Demonstrated successful experience in scientific paper preparation and submissions such as manuscripts, grants and ethics applications. Excellent oral and written communication skills and the ability to perform both self-directed and guided research. Excellent administrative, planning, and organisational skills, including setting goals, managing competing priorities, and meeting deadlines. Well-developed interpersonal skills, specifically a proactive attitude to relationship building including the necessary language skills and motivation to build relationships with all relevant stakeholders. Experience in supervising and mentoring junior team members is considered highly desirable.We are driving inclusion and diversity as part of the way we work and embrace the diverse career and life experiences of our staff. If you meet a number of the requirements (and not all), we encourage you to submit your application. We also encourage you to address any career disruptions (if applicable) you may have had in your cover letter.
About Us
Our aim is to create a workplace where people are respected and encouraged to fulfil their potential. We encourage a workforce that is innovative, eager to acquire knowledge and enhance skills; we embrace all employee differences, foster a culture that supports diversity and inclusion, and are committed to providing reasonable accommodations where required.
Some of our staff benefits include:
Additional annual leave over Christmas and Easter. Save on tax and increase your take home pay by salary packaging up to $15,899 of Living Expenses and up to $2,650 on Entertainment Benefits each FBT year. World leader in child health research. Early and Mid-Career Researcher Mentoring Program. Various initiatives providing strategic support to researchers, including funding support. Extensive health and wellbeing program with weekly events. Flexible work options and hybrid working. Modern offices and end of trip facilities, including sit to stand desks. Access to Corporate Health Insurance. Staff purchasing discounts including travel, IT Hardware and stationery.How to apply
If you think that this is the right role and an exciting new challenge for you, please click on 'Apply Now' to navigate to our Career Site to view the Job Description and submit your application.
Your cover letter (no more than 2 pages) should specifically address your skills and experience outlined in the “About You” section above.
Applications will only be accepted through our career portal. If you are experiencing technical difficulties with our online portal, please direct your query to ***********@telethonkids.org.au.
If you require reasonable accommodation in completing this application, please direct your inquiries to ***********@telethonkids.org.au.
