Postdocs

Choosing an available position in one of our research groups not only gives you access to the state of the art facilities within the SCRM building but makes you part of a vibrant and stimulating research community.

In addition to opportunities to present and critically discuss your research both internally and externally CRM also supports the career development of its postdocs through initiatives such as:

• Small research awards. A competitive scheme to allow CRM postdocs to apply for pump prime funding of innovative ideas that add value both to CRM and to the postdoc’s career development;
• Funding schemes for Post-docs to travel to other laboratories to learn new skills, set up collaborations or bring back innovative technologies to CRM;
• A program of training opportunities to enhance your skills in areas such as bioinformatics, statistics and grant writing.

A number of CRM postdocs have already gone on to set up their own independent labs however if this career path turns out not to be for you then the skills you develop while at CRM will better prepare you to access alternative options. Should you be interested in joining us as a postdoc a number of positions are advertised on our website throughout the year. Alternatively we also welcome speculative enquires from exceptional candidates who should in the first instance contact the Principal Investigator directly whose research interest you and they will be able to advise of any upcoming opportunities.

Testimonials

Dr Anestis Tsakiridis

Anestis established his own group at the Centre for Stem Cell Biology, University of Sheffield in January 2016, after working as a Postdoc in the Wilson lab.

My links with the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CRM) started at the end of 2006 when I joined Josh Brickman’s group in what was the precursor of CRM, the Institute for Stem Cell research. My short postdoc involved the building and testing of tools designed to carry out loss-of-function screens in mouse embryonic stem cells. 

I then moved to Val Wilson’s lab in June 2009 to learn more about early embryo development and axis elongation, before starting my own research group at the Centre for Stem Cell Biology in Sheffield in January of 2016. 

CRM served as an “incubator” for my scientific development by shaping the way I think and act as a researcher. This was facilitated by constant interaction with an exceptionally high number of talented group leaders, postdocs, PhD students and technicians from various backgrounds who were always willing to teach me all aspects of stem cell and developmental biology. 

CRM also offered me some excellent opportunities to learn new experimental techniques through an internal research grant which aided my visit to Wendy Bickmore’s lab at the MRC Human Genetics Unit as well as gain experience in science communication by working together with CRM’s public engagement team and the EuroStemCell.org project. 

Most importantly, CRM never felt like a stress-soaked, impersonal environment sometimes associated with postdoc experience in famous research mega-institutes. On the contrary, what I found at CRM was a unique combination of scientific excellence and a genuinely welcoming atmosphere created by people from all around the world ready to be your friends rather than your competitors.

Dr Pablo Navarro Gil

Pablo established his own group at the Institut Pasteur in 2013, Paris, after working as a Postdoc in the Chambers lab.

As a student, I was captivated by gene transcription and its apparent molecular precision and robustness, particularly within its native chromatin context. This motivation led me to do a PhD in Epigenetics. From this starting point, I moved to the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CRM) to do a Postdoc with Ian Chambers.

At CRM I became embedded within the pluripotency field that has since remained central to my work. From an interest on the biochemical events driving transcription, the main goal of my scientific activity evolved to a more integrative level of understanding of gene regulation: CRM was crucial in enlarging my scientific vision.

At CRM (2009-2013) I developed two independent projects which led to first author publications in Nature (2010; PMID 21085182), Human Genetics (2011; PMID 21544581) and EMBO Journal (2012; PMID 23178592). 

In September 2013 I was recruited as a young group leader at the Institut Pasteur (Paris, France). In my lab, I apply epigenetic concepts and techniques to address novel questions regarding the molecular properties of the pluripotency regulatory network. Conceptually, most of my current thinking and scientific questions directly derive from the fruitful scientific interactions that I established at CRM, with both students, Postdocs and PIs. Being a leading and dynamic research centre in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, I was naturally inspired by the work performed at CRM: I was irreversibly imprinted by the outstanding science developed at CRM.

My experience acquired at CRM helped to boost my career and I believe this can also be true for other Postdocs interested in stem cell biology: CRM provides a high quality, dynamic platform that increases your scientific visibility and facilitates reaching scientific independence.

Image credit: G. Cittadini-Cesi, Insitut Pasteur.