Clinical Research Fellow in DermatologyNHS
Job summary
Main place of employment:
The post will be based at St Thomas'. However, it is a requirement of your employment that you be prepared to work at any additional or different location owned or served by the Trust, either on an on-going or temporary basis according to the demands of the service.
Job summary:
The research component of this post will comprise working as part of the Unit for Population-Based Dermatology Research under the supervision of Professor Jemima Mellario. You will receive comprehensive training, for instance in the conduct of skin barrier assessments and statistical analyses, and participate in all aspects of clinical research from design through to delivery and communication of results.
Main duties of the job
The main focus of the research is EB and you will help to deliver those studies to time and target. You will work as part of and be supported by a large and well established multi-disciplinary research team with a strong track record of producing high impact, translational research. Complementary laboratory-based research may be arranged through one of the Unit's internal or external collaborators (see above). There will also be opportunities to present at national and international meetings.
The post holder will be encouraged to develop their own research interest/project, which could lead to a higher degree (MD/PhD), and to write grant applications to secure additional external funding for such a project or other research projects conducted in the Unit. It is anticipated that if the post holder is successful in securing funding for a full-time MD/PhD Fellowship that they will cease to hold this Trust-funded Clinical Research Fellowship and seamlessly progress to a full-time MD/PhD Fellowship.
Job description
Research:
The post holder will, with the help of the multi-disciplinary research team, support the extensive clinical research programme within the Unit for Population-Based Dermatology Research. This will include:
Supervising and contributing to the provision of required medical support for patients participating in interventional and non-interventional clinical studies.
Drive up recruitment to those studies by promoting clinical research activities to other members of clinical staff within St. Johns and beyond.
Contribute to the ongoing development, efficiency and operational functioning of the research team.
Ensure that written informed consent is obtained from every study subject before any study related procedure/s are carried out, including sample and data collection, administration of treatment and clinical observations, drug administration and clinical observation. This is in accordance with the Trust research governance arrangements and Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials
Regulations) Regulations 2004 and Amended Regulations 2006 incorporating International Conference on Harmonisation of Good Clinical Practice (ICH GCP).
Provide support to the wider research team.
To attend fortnightly clinical research meetings.
To contribute to the publication of research performed within the group and communicating the results to the wider public.
Attend site investigator meetings.
Ensure compliance with all aspects of GCP to deliver clinical research of high quality.
Accurate, high quality clinical data acquisition and management.
Assist in all clinical aspects of clinical trials including venepuncture, biopsies, cannulation blood sample processing, drug administration and clinical observation when necessary, ensuring that they are carried out within the Trusts policies, research governance, Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials Regulations) Regulations 2004 and Amended Regulations 2006 Incorporating International Conference on Harmonisation of Good Clinical Practice (ICH GCP) Data Protection Act and Human Tissue Act.
*** Please be advised that this vacancy may close early should we receive a sufficient number of applications ***
About us
St John's Institute of Dermatology
Our award-winning dermatology department is known as St John's Institute of Dermatology. It opened in 1863 and is one of the world's leading centres for patients with skin disease. It is the largest dermatology unit in the United Kingdom and has over 60,000 patient episodes per annum, with an unparalleled tertiary referral base.
GSTT has sponsored research into EB for over 3 decades in collaboration with the Genetic Skin Disease Group at King's College London. This includes gene discovery and basic science research, as well as clinical trials of translational therapies including cell and gene therapy for EB. GSTT is currently sponsoring a natural history study of recessive dystrophic EB (RDEB), the Prospective Epidermolysis Bullosa Longitudinal Evaluation Study (PEBLES, IRAS 142032). PEBLES has been recruiting patients from GSTT and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) since 2014 and has now collected over 550 reviews containing rich data which we are starting to disseminate. PEBLES expanded to 2 new sites in Austria (2025) and Germany (2026), and recently received 3-year funding from Debra Research to build EB trial infrastructure at GSTT and continue PEBLES data collection to at least January 2029.