Join us

About the role

We are looking to recruit a Clinical Project Manager to run an exciting Medical Research Council (MRC)-funded Experimental Medicine study, “N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) for Disorders of Consciousness (DoC)” (DMT-DoC). In people with DoC, this study will investigate the effects of intravenous DMT administration on measures of neural complexity, neuroplasticity, and awareness.

You will primarily be working to deliver the DMT-DoC study. This placebo-controlled study involves administering intravenous DMT and a saline placebo to patients with DoC. We will record electroencephalography (EEG) alongside other physiological and behavioural measures before, during, and after drug/placebo administration.

You will work in the Computational Neurology group of academic neurologist Dr Gregory Scott, within the Department of Brain Sciences, with a team of collaborators including experts in clinical neurology, psychedelics, neuropsychopharmacology, DoC, EEG, computer science, and neurophysiology.

What you would be doing

You will be responsible for all aspects of study management. This will include involvement and coordination of study set-up, in close liaison with Dr Scott. You will lead on the development of study documentation, regulatory submissions, monitoring progress and performance of the study and recruitment from participant identification centres, ensuring efficient recruitment and reliable data collection. This will be achieved through implementing / adapting established procedures to ensure the studies are conducted in accordance with contractual agreements, study protocol, study-specific processes and systems, SOPs, regulatory and ethical requirements and ICH-GCP guidelines, as well as delivered to time and within budget constraints. You will liaise closely with the participant-facing staff, including the Research Assistant, Post-doctoral Research Associate, trial medics, and psychedelics and brain injury specialists. You will also support the coordination of patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) and study monitoring activities, and attracting further research funding to the group.

This is an exciting opportunity to work on a study that could pave the way to a new class of treatment for DoC and improve our understanding of the neural mechanisms of consciousness.

What we are looking for

You should have experience in the coordination or management of biomedical or clinical research studies (preferably within a university, NHS, or research organisation setting). You should have experience of clinical research delivery and strong organisational skills. You must be able to build effective working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, and have an understanding of Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) in clinical research.

Further information

This is a part-time (50% FTE), fixed term post until 31 March 2030. You will be based principally at the Hammersmith and White City Campuses, in Dr Scott’s group, and will be expected to spend 60% of your time on-site in line with Imperial’s Work Location framework.

You will be expected to travel between sites, and also potentially to collaborating research sites, e.g., The Royal Hospital for Neurodisability, Putney.

The project

Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is a major cause of stroke and vascular dementia, and a key contributor to Alzheimer's disease. SVD is highly heritable, but most genetic risk variants lie in non-coding DNA, and how they disrupt gene regulation is largely unknown. This project will build the first integrative map of gene regulatory mechanisms in SVD, linking human genetics to molecular function. The aim is to find new blood biomarkers and genetically supported drug targets.

You will lead the analysis of a unique, deeply phenotyped cohort: 147 longitudinally followed SVD patients from the Mild Stroke Study 2 (MSS2). The cohort has genotyping, plasma proteomics, brain imaging, blood–brain barrier measures and 9 years of clinical follow-up. New DNA methylation (EPIC array) and RNA-seq data will be generated for the project. You will compare these with matched controls from the AIRWAVE cohort (~700 samples) and the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936.

• Aim 1 (years 1–2): Find DNA methylation and gene expression changes linked to SVD subtypes, dementia progression, polygenic risk, cardiovascular risk factors and epigenetic ageing.
• Aim 2 (years 3–4): Prioritise causal genes and variants. Methods include meQTL/eQTL analysis, multi-trait analysis with cardiovascular traits and other dementias, colocalisation and Mendelian randomisation. You will integrate the results with histone modification (CUT&Tag), single-cell multiome and proteomic data.

This is a computational (dry-lab) PhD. You will receive training in:

• statistical and population genetics
• epigenomics and multi-omic integration
• causal inference (Mendelian randomisation)
• reproducible analysis on high-performance computing

Training is provided by an interdisciplinary team spanning functional genomics, genetic epidemiology and clinical neuroimaging.

Supervisory team

• Dr Alexi Nott, Imperial College London (functional epigenomics and gene prioritisation)
• Prof Joanna Wardlaw, University of Edinburgh (clinical SVD and stroke, MSS2 cohort)
• Dr Axel Montagne, University of Edinburgh (vascular biomarkers, blood–brain barrier)
• Prof Abbas Dehghan, Imperial College London (genetic epidemiology, QTL analysis)
• Dr Fotios Koskeridis, Imperial College London (multi-trait genetics, cardiovascular traits)

Who we're looking for

• A first or upper-second class degree (or equivalent) in genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, computational biology, statistics, epidemiology, data science, neuroscience or a related quantitative discipline. A relevant Master's degree is desirable but not essential.
• Essential: programming experience in R and/or Python, and a strong interest in using data to understand human disease.
• Desirable: experience with Unix/HPC environments, statistical genetics (GWAS, QTL, Mendelian randomisation), omics data analysis (methylation arrays, RNA-seq, epigenomics) or large cohort datasets.
• You do not need wet-lab experience.

Funding

The studentship covers 4 years of:

• home tuition fees
• a tax free stipend, at least equal to the UKRI London rates (for 2026/27 this is £23,805)
• £5,000 per year for research costs
• £1,000 per year for conference travel

Additional funds can also be applied for to support training and career development.

Eligibility: home fee status only. The studentship covers home-rate tuition fees only, so we can only consider applicants who qualify for home fee status.