Vacancy

*** PostDoc in Electron Microscopy and Tomography of Cardiac Muscle ***

National Heart and Lung Institute

Faculty of Medicine

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

Salary Scale: £30,520 - £31,340

High resolution structural analysis of the alterations to sarcomeric structure due to MYBPC3  mutations that cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy”

We are looking for a highly motivated structural biologist to join our research group studying disease mechanisms in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy by electron microscopy.

The post is funded for 3 years starting in January 2010 by a European Commission FP7 award which will fund research into hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in five centres. Applicants should have a PhD in a Biological or Physical Science subject and have a strong background in cardiac muscle biology.  Experience in electron microscopy and electron tomography of sectioned biological samples is highly desirable

Myosin binding protein C (MyBP-C) is a modular 135 kD protein in striated muscle located at regular intervals along each myosin filament and also interacting with actin filaments.  Recently we have identified the locations of MyBP-C in normal muscle sarcomeres and have developed electron tomography to generate a high resolution three dimensional structure of frog skeletal thick filaments in situ.  Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is mainly caused by mutations in MyBP-C (MYBPC3) leading to haploinsufficiency and myosin (MYH7) which act as a poison peptide.  We have gathered cardiac tissue from HCM patients undergoing myectomy operations and the underlying mutations for the HCM have been characterised.  In this project we will apply our structural techniques to human heart muscle and in particular compare normal heart muscle thick filament structure with muscle having defined mutations in MyBP-C or myosin heavy chain, in order to understand the structural basis of the heart disease.

The project offers the opportunity to work within a well-funded, world class 5* (RAE) department based at Imperial’s South Kensington Campus.

For informal enquiries contact Dr Pradeep Luther (p.luther@imperial.ac.uk).

To be available shortly: application form and further details go to http://www.imperial.ac.uk/employment/research.

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