Job and Study Opportunities

NBC/26/36 - Clinical Research Fellow (PhD)

Other job position

Application deadline: 07 Sep 2026

Institute: Cancer Research UK National Biomarker Centre
Country: United Kingdom
More information: https://apps.cruk.manchester.ac.uk/recruitment/candidate/searchvacancies

Clinical Research Fellow (PhD)
in Biliary Tract Cancer Liquid Biopsy Translational Research

• Job Ref: NBC/26/36
• Duration: 3 years duration
• Salary: £65,048 - £73,992 per annum (according to relevant experience) aligned to NHS Resident Doctors Pay Scale
• Post Start Date: January 2027

About The Fellowship:
Applicants will undertake a 3-year fully funded PhD fellowship (The University of Manchester) in cancer research through the highly successful CRUK PhD programme, supervised by internationally recognised scientists and clinical academics. The fellowship will be predominantly laboratory-based with opportunities to gain experience in novel liquid biopsy technologies and training in bioinformatics and computational analysis whilst maintaining clinical engagement within the Hepato-pancreatico-biliary (HPB) Medical Oncology Team at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust.

This PhD will investigate the development and clinical application of circulating nucleic acid biomarkers to improve the diagnosis, prognostication and treatment stratification of patients with biliary tract cancers (BTC). Despite advances in systemic therapies, BTC remains associated with poor survival and there is an urgent need for minimally invasive biomarkers that enable earlier diagnosis, molecular characterisation and real-time monitoring of treatment response.

The successful candidate will undertake translational laboratory research within the Nucleic Acid Biomarker Team at the CRUK National Biomarker Centre, working alongside leading scientists, bioinformaticians and clinician researchers. Supervised by Dr A Conway (Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology) and Dr A Clipson (Deputy Team Lead Nucleic Acid Biomarker Team), the project will focus on the development and validation of novel liquid biopsy approaches including circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), cell-free RNA (cfRNA) and other circulating biomarkers from blood and bile samples.

Apply Now
Please submit your online application by 18:00 on 07 September 2026 Monday https://apps.cruk.manchester.ac.uk/recruitment/candidate/searchvacancies

For any informal enquiries about this post, please contact Alicia-Marie Conway, alicia-marie.conway@cruk.manchester.ac.uk or Alexandra Clipson alexandra.clipson@cruk.manchester.ac.uk

The fellow will gain extensive training in molecular biology techniques, next-generation sequencing technologies, biomarker assay development, experimental design, statistical analysis and bioinformatics. They will also have opportunities to collaborate with national and international research partners and present their work at major scientific conferences.