Applications are invited for a Research position in the group of Professor Manohar Bance, Professor of Otology and Skull Base Surgery in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences.
The position would develop research centered round understanding where damage occurs in hearing loss in humans. Most inner ear hearing loss is difficult to ascribe to a specific location in the inner ear, such as hair cell, supporting cells, synapse, auditory nerve or stria vascularis. This makes diagnostics difficult, and makes it impossible to target therapies such as gene therapies, drug therapies or molecular therapies to specific targets.
The goal of this project is to develop diagnostic methods that will focus more accurately on the site of lesion in hearing loss, using primarily electrophysiological tests (such as electocochleography, FFR and auditory brainstem ascending pathway tests), but also psychoacoustic tests, and serum biomarkers. The successful candidate will help develop computational models, based on existing models such as those developed by Prof Ian Bruce, a collaborator (e.g. Zeyl TJ, Bruce IC. Ear Hear. 2014;35(2):246-55 or Zilany MS, Bruce IC J Acoust Soc Am. 2006, 120(3):1446-66) to understand test results expected from different pathologies, and develop new auditory probes to separate out the different sites of lesion.
The group will test subjects with various sites of pathology already identified, based on genetic or otic trauma background, with collaborators around the world. We will also use the test results developed to work with animal models of hearing loss, where the site of lesion is strongly suspected based on their genetic profiles.
The successful candidate will conduct research in the Cambridge Hearing Research Group http://www.hearing-research.group.cam.ac.uk/ , working with psychoacousticians, electrophysiologists, and genetic hearing loss researchers, with collaborators from Canada, Holland, and Kings College London.
The ideal candidate will have a background in electrophysiology of the auditory system, as well as some psychoacoustics background, and as strong computational background would be an asset.
The successful candidate will hold a PhD (or equivalent) in a relevant specialist subject area, such as psychoacoustics, auditory modelling, or electrophysiology.
Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available until 31 May 2021 in the first instance.
To apply online for this vacancy, please click on the 'Apply' button below. This will route you to the University's Web Recruitment System, where you will need to register an account (if you have not already) and log in before completing the online application form.
Closing Date - 17th March 2019
Please ensure that you upload your Curriculum Vitae (CV) and a covering letter in the Upload section of the online application. The covering letter should outline how you match the criteria for the post and why you are applying for this role. If you upload any additional documents which have not been requested, we will not be able to consider these as part of your application.
Please include details of your referees, including e-mail address and phone number, one of which must be your most recent line manager
Please quote reference ZE17967 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.
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