Research Fellow

Background

The Children’s Brain Tumour Research Team (CBTRT) at the University of Birmingham, set up by Professor Andrew Peet and now led by Dr John Apps, brings together a multidisciplinary team of clinicians and researchers to improve the understanding, diagnosis, treatment and lives of children with brain tumours.

Role Summary

• Deliver the research aims outlined within the Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust grant entitled, “Advancing Non-Invasive Brain Tumour Diagnosis through AI driven Clinical Decision Support”.
• Contribute to generating funding through contribution to writing further grant/funding bids to support ongoing research in the field.
• Operate within area of specialism, analyse and interpret and present research findings and results.

Main Duties

The responsibilities may include some but not all of the responsibilities outlined below.

• Deliver the research aims outlined within the Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust grant entitled, “Advancing Non-Invasive Brain Tumour Diagnosis through AI driven Clinical Decision Support”, through analysis of MR Diffusion Weighted Imaging and MR Spectroscopy and leading other members of the wider team.
• Specific aims of the project: To prospectively evaluate non-invasive pre-surgical radiomic diagnostic classifiers on brain tumours registered to the Imaging of Tumours Study; Improve classifiers through addition of additional cases to the repository and further optimisation of classification algorithms; Correlate/Integrate In Vivo and Ex Vivo metabolite analysis to understand the key metabolic pathways in different tumour types and subtypes; Identify and harmonise MRI and MRS acquisition protocols for detection and quantification of specific metabolites relevant for specific tumour types/subtypes (led by Medical Physics team).
• Contribute to writing bids for research funding.
• Analyse and interpret data.
• Apply knowledge in a way which develops new intellectual understanding.
• Disseminate research findings for publication, research seminars etc.
• Supervise students on research related work and provide guidance to MSc and PhD students where appropriate to the discipline.
• Contribute to developing new models, techniques and methods.
• Undertake management/administration arising from research.

Person Specification

• First degree in area of specialism and a higher degree (or will have submitted pending examination at the time of starting the post), relevant to research area or equivalent qualifications.
• Experience in quantitative analysis of Magnetic Resonance Imaging/Spectroscopy.
• Ideally, experience and knowledge of paediatric brain tumour diagnosis and tumour biology.
• Experience of using and developing Machine learning/AI based classifiers.
• Proficiency in coding using R and Python and other similar languages.
• High level analytical capability.
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly.