Research Assistant

Organisation/Company UNIVERSITY OF SURREY Research Field Biological sciences Medical sciences Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) First Stage Researcher (R1) Final date to receive applications 17 Mar 2026 - 00:00 (UTC) Country United Kingdom Type of Contract Other Job Status Full-time Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

The University of Surrey is a global community of ideas and people, dedicated to life-changing education and research.

We are ambitious and have a bold vision of what we want to achieve - shaping ourselves into one of the best universities in the world, which we are achieving through the talents and endeavour of every employee.

Our culture empowers people to achieve this aim and to collectively, and individually, make a real difference.

An exciting opportunity for a Research Assistant (fixed term contract up to June 2026). The purpose of the job is to assist in the final stage of an EU funded project that centres on the analysis of host-pathogen interaction mechanisms of viral infections and vaccination. Specifically the project investigates novel vaccines against AHSV. The postholder needs to be able to execute research project driven objectives with little advice based on their own experience and deliver against set target dates.

Specifically, the postholder will have to:

• Determine virus replication and host in response in primary target (horse) cells
• Determine the effects of viral replication on non-infected cells
• Determine the effect of vaccines on primary immune cells in vitro
• Determine the effect of vaccines from samples collected at animal studies

About you Applicants need to have a degree in biomedical or veterinary sciences. Applicants need to have postgraduate experience of several years (>2) in the field of host-pathogen interaction work. They need to have practical experience working with veterinary viruses and the immune system. Specifically, the postholder will have to have practical experience with:

• Working with animals viruses in general and AHSV in particular
• Spectral Flow Cytometry including cell sorting
• Systems Immunology approaches, from preparing cells for RNASeq to interpretating data

It is essential that postholders are trained and signed-off to work in the containment laboratories. For this there are a number of legal requirements, such as being a UK citizen or with pre-existing long-term residency in the UK, as well as holding a CTC clearance. Since the project is collaborative, postholder should be willing and able to travel to project partners on short notice if necessary.

Please make your application on the university website.