Post Date : 02-Jul-2025
Close Date : 16-Jul-2025 Job Title: Postdoctoral Fellow
Department: School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences
Reporting to: Dr Jennifer Dowling
Location: Brain Inflammation Group Ireland (BIGie), Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), 123 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland
Contract/Duration: 3 years full time with possibility of extension
Remuneration: Appointable at Post-doctoral researcher - PD2 Point 1 of the IUA researcher salary scale (September, 2025 onwards)
Closing Date: 16th July 2025 RCSI is a community of academic, research, clinical and professional staff working collaboratively to lead the world to better health. Here, you will thrive in an innovative and inclusive atmosphere and your personal development and wellbeing will be supported. We invite you to join us to help deliver on our exciting mission “To educate, nurture and discover for the benefit of human health”. We seek candidates whose experience to date has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to the “Race Equality Action Plan 2025-2029” at RCSI. Our students come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds. This makes our university stronger and ensures we hire the best talent. Innovating for a Healthier Future 2023-2027 is RCSI’s new five-year strategic plan. Through it, RCSI will enhance human health by meeting the health workforce needs of society, creating the insights and inventions that drive health improvements, and working in partnership with patients and the public in support of better health and well-being for all. The strategy unites the RCSI community in supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals – with a particular focus on Goal 3, which targets good health and well-being. For each of the last six years, RCSI has been positioned in the Top 300 of universities worldwide in the Times Higher World University Rankings. We are proud that RCSI ranks fifth in the world for “Good Health and Well-being” in the Times Higher Education #SDG #SDG Impact Rankings 2024. This reflects our commitment to supporting people of all ages to live healthy lives and our work to promote the concepts of well-being and positive health. In 2024, RCSI was delighted to be named one of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work in Ireland. At RCSI, our core values of Respect, Collaboration, Scholarship, and Innovation are at the heart of everything we do. We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive environment where every colleague is valued and empowered to thrive. Our dedication to these values ensures that we foster a culture of mutual respect, open collaboration, continuous learning, and innovative thinking. Join us at RCSI, where your contributions will be recognised, and you will be part of a dynamic team making a real impact on global health.
About Our Research
RCSI recognises that excellence in research is critical to the quality of its educational activities, its credibility, and, overall, to its mission to enhance human health. RCSI’s research strategy aims to build upon its strength in translational biomedical and clinical research to deliver transformational, high impact changes in health care. Targeting both Irish national and EU funding, along with increased collaboration with industry, is a major part of the RCSI research strategy. Forging increased collaboration between RCSI PIs and industry is of critical importance to achieving success in this area. RCSI is also committed to provide its researchers with the supports and developmental opportunities to enable them to continuously grow and support their overall career development. About Future Neuro
Future Neuro is a national research centre focused on chronic and rare neurological diseases, funded by Research Ireland and based at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Led by Prof. David Henshall, Future Neuro brings together multidisciplinary scientific teams with clinicians and industry to deliver advances in diagnostic medicine, personalized and network therapeutics, cross-linked by a national e-Health infrastructure platform that is disease-focused. The mission of Future Neuro is to accelerate discoveries on genetic diagnosis and advanced molecular treatments supported by enabling e-health technology for chronic and rare neurological diseases. Building initially on internationally recognized strengths in epilepsy and motor neuron disease research, the Centre aims to develop additional research programmes in other chronic and rare neurological diseases. Project Summary
Epilepsy is a common neurological condition characterised by spontaneous recurrent seizures that affects people of all ages. Seizures result broadly from imbalances in excitatory and inhibitory transmission which enable synchronous firing of neuronal networks. Current anti-seizure medicines (ASMs) are heavily ‘neurocentric’, targeting ion channels and neurotransmitter systems. Importantly, current treatments fail to control seizures in about 30% of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and current ASMs are not disease-modifying and cannot prevent epilepsy developing in at-risk individuals. New approaches are urgently needed. Aberrant cellular metabolism can be both cause and consequence of seizure activity. Disruptions in energy homeostasis and glutamate metabolism can lead to excitotoxicity, cell death, and seizure symptom. The eminent field of immunometabolism clearly demonstrates how cellular metabolism tightly regulates inflammation and immune cell function to impact disease. Work in our group has started to elucidate the pathways involved with regard to epilepsy. This project will investigate critical regulators of inflammation and metabolic pathways to gain mechanistic understanding of the epilepsies and yield new therapeutic targets. Key Objectives and Methodology
The list below comprises objectives and methodology of a four-year research program that the successful applicant for this role will work on in conjunction with a postgraduate student.
• Investigate the role of immunometabolism in epilepsy using an in vivo model of TLE, state-of-the-art spatial proteomic analysis, metabolic assays (Seahorse Flux Analyser), primary glia, neurons and co-cultures.
• Determine the role of neuroinflammation on neuronal function and hyperexcitability using imaging and neurophysiologic approaches to examine epileptiform and interictal discharges in mouse hippocampal brain slices
• Examine the role of neuroinflammation on the Astrocytic-Glutamate-Glutamine cycle and inhibitory interneurons by HPLC and immunohistochemistry.
• Evaluate a patented nucleic acid approach within the lab known as a target site blocker as a novel treatment for epilepsy
• Translational work will also be initiated employing human i PSC cultures. Description of research group at RCSI: The Brain Inflammation Group Ireland (BIGie) is a highly dynamic team led by Dr Dowling that includes researchers from various scientific disciplines. The group integrates molecular and cell biology approaches with in vivo studies to understand the neuroimmune axis and its impact on neurological disorders. Specifically, the group delves into macrophage and glia biology, immunometabolism, neuroinflammation and targeting the same for the treatment of injury and disease in the brain. Current research interests include the molecular understanding of neuroimmune interactions in epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and brain tumors. In addition, the group is actively involved in working in partnership with clinical, academic, industry-based experts and patient advocacy groups. Dr Dowling is passionate about the groups research, the people she works with, teaching, mentorship and supporting the next generation of scientists. Dr Dowling is a council member of Neuroscience Ireland and the All Ireland Multiple Sclerosis Research Network. Specifically, the duties of the post are:
§ The successful candidate will be expected to be highly motivated and to perform with a high level of
independence.
§ The successful candidate will work with external collaborators (academic, clinical, industry and patient advocacy groups) and internally within RCSI
§ The successful applicant will represent the labs work at national and international conferences
§ The candidate would be expected to write scientific reports and reviews
§ The candidate will work in the laboratory with researchers at various training levels and would be expected to provide training and supervision of students and other staff
§ Undergo appropriate training for specialised technical procedures, career training and development both in Ireland and overseas as may be required from time to time
§ Participate in other research programmes within the laboratories
§ Ensure that all RCSI policies and procedures are adhered to
§ Comply with statutory legislation and RCSI rules and requirements in furtherance of your own and general staff welfare and safety
§ Represent the best interests of RCSI at all times Qualifications – (Essential):
§ Applicants should have a Ph D in Neuroscience/Immunology or related biological subject
Knowledge & Experience – (Essential):
§ Experience with an in vivo model of epilepsy OR other neurological disorder
§ Ability to work successfully and engage positively with colleagues, collaborators, students and
project stakeholders
§ Strong research and scientific English writing skills
§ Good scientific track record as demonstrated by authorship on research papers in relevant field Knowledge & Experience – (Desirable):
§ Experience in analysis of spatial transcriptomics, single cell sequencing, microarray OR omics data.
§ Experience with induced (i PSC) cultures
§ Self-motivated, hard-working and willing to contribute towards growing research in the area of Neuroimmunology and Immunometabolism
§ Excellent communication style and proficient in report writing and presentation skills
§ Experience in co-supervision of postgraduate candidates and/or undergraduate students. Click on the link(s) below to view documents Filesize 411.1