Postdoctoral fellow

Job Title: Postdoctoral fellow Department: Chemistry Department Reporting to: Dr Marco Monopoli Location: 123 St Stephen Green, Dublin Contract/Duration Specified purpose contract, up to 15 months Remuneration: Post Doctorate Researcher (PD) Level 1 Closing Date: 26th of September 2025 RCSI is a community of academic, research, clinical and professional staff working collaboratively to lead the world to better health. Here, you will thrive in an innovative and inclusive atmosphere and your personal development and wellbeing will be supported. We invite you to join us to help deliver on our exciting mission "To educate, nurture and discover for the benefit of human health". We seek candidates whose experience to date has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to the "Race Equality Action Plan 2025-2029" at RCSI. Our students come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds. This makes our university stronger and ensures we hire the best talent. Innovating for a Healthier Future 2023-2027 is RCSI's new five-year strategic plan. Through it, RCSI will enhance human health by meeting the health workforce needs of society, creating the insights and inventions that drive health improvements, and working in partnership with patients and the public in support of better health and well-being for all. The strategy unites the RCSI community in supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals - with a particular focus on Goal 3, which targets good health and well-being. For each of the last six years, RCSI has been positioned in the Top 300 of universities worldwide in the Times Higher World University Rankings. We are proud that RCSI ranks fifth in the world for "Good Health and Well-being" in the Times Higher Education #SDG #SDG Impact Rankings 2024. This reflects our commitment to supporting people of all ages to live healthy lives and our work to promote the concepts of well-being and positive health. In 2024, RCSI was delighted to be named one of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work in Ireland. At RCSI, our core values of Respect, Collaboration, Scholarship, and Innovation are at the heart of everything we do. We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive environment where every colleague is valued and empowered to thrive. Our dedication to these values ensures that we foster a culture of mutual respect, open collaboration, continuous learning, and innovative thinking. Join us at RCSI, where your contributions will be recognised, and you will be part of a dynamic team making a real impact on global health. About Our Research RCSI recognises that excellence in research is critical to the quality of its educational activities, its credibility, and, overall, to its mission to enhance human health. RCSI's research strategy aims to build upon its strength in translational biomedical and clinical research to deliver transformational, high impact changes in health care. Targeting both Irish national and EU funding, along with increased collaboration with industry, is a major part of the RCSI research strategy. Forging increased collaboration between RCSI PIs and industry is of critical importance to achieving success in this area. RCSI is also committed to provide its researchers with the supports and developmental opportunities to enable them to continuously grow and support their overall career development. Summary of Post We are seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to conduct a study focused on gaining a comprehensive understanding of the biomolecular interactions between nanomaterials and living systems, which is essential for predicting their potential toxicity and environmental impact. The researcher must have prior experience at least in one of the following research fields: proteomics, glycan analysis, or nanotechnology, and be able to work at the interface of synthetic chemistry and complex fluids, such as blood plasma, cell culture media, or lung lining fluids. The researcher will characterise the nanomaterials in complex media with multiple techniques, such as dynamic light scattering (DLS), Nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA), Differential Centrifugal Sedimentation (DCS) and similar techniques. The candidate will also carry out mass spectrometry analysis and glycan analysis to characterise the corona composition and will also quantify the biological stability over time. The candidate will also develop methods to isolate the NP-corona complexes without creating artefacts and aggregation due to the isolation technique using protocols that are in place and also to develop new ones. The applicant will also be responsible of supporting the activity of other team members and of writing scientific reports and assist with manuscript preparation. Some relevant publications on these studies are below: Saorin, A., Subrati, A., Martinez-Serra, A., Alonso, B., Henry, M., Meleady, P., Moya, S. E., & Monopoli, M. P. (2025). A redefined protocol for protein corona analysis on graphene oxide . ACS Nanoscience Au. Martinez-Serra, A., Saorin, A., Serrano-Lotina, A., Subrati, A., Soliman, M. G., Hristozov, D., Baares, M. A., Demokritou, P., & Monopoli, M. P. (2025). Dispersion protocols have minimal impact on the biomolecular corona of advanced nanomaterials in cell culture assays. NanoImpact, 38 , 100560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.impact. Alberto Martinez-Serra, Jack Cheeseman, Asia Saorin, Mahmoud G. Soliman, Marko Dobricic, Daniel I. R. Spencer, & Marco P. Monopoli. (2025). Multiple exposures of plasma to nanoparticles: A novel tool to personalize biomolecular coronas and fractionate fluids. Analytical Chemistry, 97 , 14132. Soliman, M. G., Fernandez Alarcon, J., Ldtke, T. U., Violatto, M. B., Dobricic, M., Cordiglieri, C., Corbelli, A., Fiordaliso, F., Sitia, G., O'Donnell, J. S., Spencer, D. I. R., Moya, S., Bigini, P., & Monopoli, M. P. (2025). Decoration of gold nanoparticles with glycopeptides leads to a lower cellular uptake and liver retention. Nanoscale Advances , Advance Article. Specifically, the duties of the post are: Carry out biomolecular analysis of the biomolecules using proteomics and glycan analysis Perform physical chemical characterisation of nanomaterials using standard techniques. Use or adapt methods to isolate nanoparticle-protein complexes using centrifugation or size exclusion chromatography. Attend work package meetings with partners across Europe. Travel to international conferences and consortium meetings in Europe Prepare progress reports and deliverables. Contribute to the writing of scientific papers Constantly stay up to date with the latest research findings in the literature Meet weekly with the line manager and attend weekly group meeting as well as the bimonthly Department of Chemistry Meetings Co-supervise PhD students and engage and cooperate with other researchers in the team. Qualifications - (Essential): PhD in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Nanotechnology or similar research areas An excellent communicator who is keen on keeping an open conversation with the line manager An excellent teamwork willing to share his expertise with younger and older team members Knowledge & Experience - (Essential): Good knowledge regarding nanomaterial characterisation sizing techniques (e.g. DLS, DCS, NTA, TGA, TEM, etc). Hands-on experience in proteomics or glycan analysis Understanding on basics techniques for protein quantification A team player who can collaborate with other researchers in the team and within the institute An excellent communicator who is keen on keeping an open conversation with the line manager Understanding the basics techniques for glycan analysis, protein sample handling and analysis with SDS-PAGE and mass spectrometry analysis Appropriate publication record to the career stage of the applicant. Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English Ability to interact with researchers from an interdisciplinary Useful links: Link to the research team: Link to the publications of the team: EU project consortium: We are all too aware that imposter syndrome and the confidence gap can sometimes stop fantastic candidates putting themselves forward, so please do submit an application - we'd love to hear from you. Application Process Please apply online through the RCSI careers portal ( ) as soon as possible and before the closing date with your CV and cover letter highlighting how the applicant's expertise will be aligned with the advertised position. Informal enquiries can be directed to but it will be much appreciated to careful revise the information provided first. Please note we do not accept CVs directly and applications are not accepted when sent by email. Click here to read our Recruitment and Selection Policy for Researcher.