Dept. of Urology - Prostate Cancer Focal Therapy (PCFT) Translational Research Programme

We are seeking a highly motivated, intellectually curious, and independent Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join our translational prostate cancer research team. The successful candidate will work closely with the Principal Investigator (PI) and collaborate with both research and clinical teams. This individual is expected to play a central scientific role and contribute actively to the development of the PCFT translational research programme, which integrates next-generation sequencing (NGS)-including genomic sequencing, transcriptomic sequencing (bulk/single-cell/spatial)-and electronic medical records (clinical and imaging data) to characterise the tumour microenvironment, immune mechanisms, and treatment resistance associated with focal therapy response in early prostate cancer.

This position is ideal for a candidate who wishes to operate at the interface of molecular oncology, tumour immunology, spatial biology, imaging, and clinical translation, with a clear pathway to translational scientist, and taking on leadership roles in early-phase biomarker-driven clinical trials.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

1. Cancer Genomic Translational Research (≈70%)

• Lead the design and execution of multi-modal profiling-including NGS processing, mIHC, radiomic imaging, and immune profiling-for pre- and post-focal-therapy prostate tumours.
• Develop and maintain computational pipelines to integrate NGS, histopathology, imaging, and clinical data, and collaborate with bioinformaticians on advanced modelling of recurrence and immune response.
• Perform and supervise molecular assays including DNA/RNA extraction, library preparation, qPCR, and immune phenotyping.
• Develop and optimize standardized experimental workflows, QC pipelines, and oversee biobanking processes for tissue, blood, and urine.
• Coordinate with genomics cores, imaging cores, and commercial platforms to support multi-modal sequencing and experimental assays.
• Interpret tumour-immune microenvironmental data in relation to focal therapy outcomes and recurrence patterns.
• Contribute to scientific publications, including data analysis, manuscript drafting, and revision.
• Engage with collaborators and external research teams, and represent the project at meetings and conferences to showcase research progress and findings.

2. Administrative Responsibilities (≈30%)

• Coordinate project timelines, ethics submissions (IRB/DSRB), and regulatory documentation to support our current clinical trials.
• Oversee database management, data extraction, record-keeping, and compliance with institutional and grant policies.
• Support grant applications, progress reporting, and budgeting activities.
• Mentor junior team members and contribute to routine lab operations and meetings.
• Any other ad-hoc duties if assigned.

Job Requirements

1. PhD, MD, or equivalent doctoral degree in Cancer Biology, Immunology, Molecular Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Computational Biology, or related field.
2. Strong background in cancer genomics, or molecular oncology.
3. Demonstrated experience with NGS, spatial transcriptomic platforms, immune profiling, or multiplex imaging.
4. Proficiency in Python and/or R for biomedical data analysis; experience in image/spatial data analysis is a strong advantage.
5. Prior exposure to clinical-translational research and human tissue studies highly desirable.
6. Proven ability to lead projects independently, interpret complex datasets, and publish as first author.
7. Able to work independently under pressure as well as in a team.
8. Strong scientific writing and presentation skills.
9. Highly organized, intellectually curious, and able to work at the bench-bedside-data interface.