Would you like to become part of a vibrant, collaborative, and innovative research environment at the University of Bath? We are seeking an experienced and highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Associate to join our multidisciplinary team working at the forefront of translational biopharmaceutics.

About the Project

The successful candidate will contribute to EPSRC-funded research aimed at developing a transformative platform for the future use of injectable medicines in the UK and globally. The overarching goal is to design a new generation of reformulated injectable therapeutics—tailored for both community and hospital administration—and manufactured through automated processes to significantly reduce demands on healthcare systems.

You will help drive our vision to “link lab to patient” by developing reliable, predictive, and physiologically relevant in silico models of subcutaneous (SC) drug absorption.

Key Responsibilities

A typical day in this role may include: developing and refining PBPK models to translate in vitro findings into meaningful predictions of in vivo behaviour; building models to establish in vitro / in vivo correlations (IVIVC) for subcutaneous drug administration; using experimental datasets generated to model drug diffusion, absorption, and distribution following SC delivery of reformulated medicines.

About you

• PhD in Basic Science, Pharmacy, Engineering, Health Sciences, or a related discipline.
• At least one year of experience in PBPK modelling.
• Experience in formulation development is desirable.

Why Join Us?

• Be part of a dynamic research group dedicated to impactful translational science.
• Work on nationally supported EPSRC projects with clear clinical and industrial relevance.
• Contribute to innovations that may fundamentally reshape how injectable therapies are delivered across the healthcare landscape.

Further information

This is a full time (36.5 hours per week) fixed term position with an expected start date from August 2026.

For an informal discussion regarding the role please contact Prof Nikoletta Fotaki at n.fotaki@bath.ac.uk

We consider ourselves to be a university where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equity and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students and encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on the university. We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for our students, staff, and community by reinforcing our Safer Recruitment commitment.

We're very proud to be a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant. an accredited Disability Confident Leader; autism friendly university, committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff. 

What we can offer you

We're continually expanding our benefits package to better support you and enhance your experience with us and the below is just an example of some of the many great benefits we offer:

• Free counselling services through Health Assured
• Cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
• Staff discount at Team Bath gym
• Staff discounts on postgraduate tuition fees
• Staff discount on language courses
• Generous employer contributory pension schemes
• Generous annual leave allowance with an additional 5 discretionary days so that you can enjoy a positive work life balance
• A wide range of personal and professional development opportunities including Apprenticeships, LinkedIn Learning and more
• Free entry to the Holburne Museum in Bath
• Local discounts and more
• A family-friendly workplace 
• An excellent reward package that recognises the talents of our diverse workforce
• Relocation allowance
• Visa reimbursement and Interest-Free Loan to help with the cost of some immigration expenses

Find out more about our benefits and watch the video to hear from our staff about what makes the University of Bath a great place to work as well as following us X and LinkedIn.

 

Closing Date: 28 Apr 2026

Department: Education & Research

Salary: £38,784 to £46,049

The Departments of Life Sciences and Chemistry invite applications for a Prize Fellowship in Drug Discovery, an exceptional opportunity for an emerging research leader to develop an independent, internationally recognised programme at the interface of chemistry and biology.  The position will be run as a joint appointment across the two departments. 

This prestigious Fellowship is aligned with the new Centre for Drug Discovery (CDD), a cross-faculty initiative bringing together chemists, biologists, data scientists and engineers to accelerate drug discovery through innovation in synthesis, screening, computation and translation. CDD will focus on emerging modalities and enabling technologies from cyclic small molecules, peptides, antibodies and macrocycles that explore new 3D chemical space, to AI-guided synthesis, flow automation and direct-to-biology screening. By coupling Bath’s strengths in synthetic chemistry, chemical and structural biology, and advanced delivery science, the Centre will provide a distinctive environment for developing next-generation molecular tools and therapeutic leads.

We seek a creative and collaborative scientist tackling fundamental challenges in contemporary drug discovery, ideally with a strong grounding in chemistry and an interest in applying molecular or computational technologies to biological problems.

While we encourage applications from a range of backgrounds, we particularly welcome candidates whose research aligns with one or more of the following areas: 

•    Medicinal chemistry for emerging modalities such as peptides, molecular glues, PROTACs, ADCs or covalent inhibitors

•    Innovative screening approaches, e.g. DNA-encoded libraries, affinity-selection mass spectrometry, chemoproteomics or AI/ML-driven virtual screening. 

•    Computational drug discovery including molecular design, macrocycle conformations, docking, or predictive models for permeability and pharmacokinetics. 

About the Prize Fellowship

The Bath Prize Fellowship offers three years of protected research time and the opportunity for a permanent academic appointment, subject to performance. Fellows will have access to state-of-the-art laboratories for automation, high-throughput synthesis, compound screening and advanced computation, and will join a vibrant cross-faculty community engaging with industry, the regional GW4 innovation network and opportunity to benefit from the South-West Life Science network.

About Drug Discovery at Bath

Drug discovery at Bath is driven by close integration between Life Sciences and Chemistry, uniting expertise in peptide design, synthetic chemistry, chemoproteomics and computational modelling. Core strengths include chemical and structural biology, pharmacology and antibiotic discovery, with projects spanning early-stage molecular design through to pre-clinical mechanism-of-action studies.

Life Sciences provides cutting-edge laboratories for molecular and cellular biology, microbiology and pharmaceutical sciences, including tissue-culture suites, automated liquid handling and a zebrafish facility for in vivo pharmacology. Chemistry complements this with world-class infrastructure for automated and flow synthesis, compound characterisation (MS, NMR, DReaM Facility) and access to Bath’s High-Performance Computing and AI/ML platforms for virtual screening and molecular design. Both departments have a strong track record in innovation with a number of spin out companies. 

Together, these resources offer an exceptional environment for innovative researchers to develop and test new approaches to molecular discovery.

Informal enquiries & application

For informal enquiries, please contact Dr Scott Lovell, Life Sciences (sdl35@bath.ac.uk) or Dr Alex Cresswell, Chemistry (ajc202@bath.ac.uk), co-leads of the Bath Centre for Drug Discovery. Please ensure applications are submitted via the University’s online system. Alongside the online form, please upload a full CV. 

We are committed to providing a supportive and inclusive working environment for all staff, including mentorship and flexible working arrangements. The Departments of Life Science, Chemistry and the University currently hold Athena SWAN Silver awards, and we are working to further improve equality, diversity and inclusion for the benefit of all staff. If you would like to discuss any issues or other aspects of the working environment with a member of staff who is not involved in the recruitment process, please contact Prof Stephen Husbands, Director of Research in the Department of Life Sciences (prssmah@bath.ac.uk).

We're continually expanding our benefits package to better support you and enhance your experience with us and the below is just an example of some of the many great benefits we offer:

• Free counselling services through Health Assured
• Cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
• Staff discount at Team Bath gym
• Staff discounts on postgraduate tuition fees
• Staff discount on language courses
• Generous employer contributory pension schemes
• Generous annual leave allowance with an additional 5 discretionary days so that you can enjoy a positive work life balance
• A wide range of personal and professional development opportunities including Apprenticeships, LinkedIn Learning and more
• Free entry to the Holburne Museum in Bath
• Local discounts and more
• A family-friendly workplace 
• An excellent reward package that recognises the talents of our diverse workforce
• Relocation allowance
• Visa reimbursement and Interest-Free Loan to help with the cost of some immigration expenses

Find out more about our benefits and watch the video to hear from our staff about what makes the University of Bath a great place to work as well as following us X and LinkedIn.

Closing Date: 26 May 2026

Department: Education & Research

Salary: £47,389 to £56,535

About the Project

The successful candidate will contribute to EPSRC-funded research aimed at developing a transformative platform for the future use of injectable medicines in the UK and globally. The overarching goal is to design a new generation of reformulated injectable therapeutics—tailored for both community and hospital administration—and manufactured through automated processes to significantly reduce demands on healthcare systems.

You will help drive our vision to “link lab to patient” by developing a better understanding of relationships between drug/tissue interactions and absorption following subcutaneous (SC) administration. These findings will facilitate the reformulation of IV injectable medicines, enabling their use in the most appropriate setting.

About you

A typical day in this role may include: evaluating diffusion characteristics of drug molecules using state of the art equipment (Sub-cutaneous Injection Site Simulator – Scissor); identifying physico-chemical characteristics of drug molecules contributing towards diffusion behaviour; using a range of analytical techniques for characterisation of drug stability and degradation; working with a wide range of drug classes including small molecules, biologicals, and advanced formulations such as nanoparticles.

Minimum Qualifications

• PhD in Chemistry, Pharmacy, Biochemistry, Health Sciences, or a related discipline.
• At least one year of experience in formulation science or chemical analysis.
• Experience in PKPB modelling is desirable.

Why Join Us?

• Be part of a dynamic research group dedicated to impactful translational science.
• Work on nationally supported EPSRC projects with clear clinical and industrial relevance.
• Contribute to innovations that may fundamentally reshape how injectable therapies are delivered across the healthcare landscape.

Location

Department of Life Sciences, University of Bath

We consider ourselves to be a university where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equity and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students and encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on the university. We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for our students, staff, and community by reinforcing our Safer Recruitment commitment.

We're very proud to be a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant. an accredited Disability Confident Leader; autism friendly university, committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff. 

Further information

This role is offered on a full time (36.5 hours per week) fixed term basis with an expected start date from 11 May 2026. For an informal discussion about the role please contact Andrew Watts at aw270@bath.ac.uk.

What we can offer you

We're continually expanding our benefits package to better support you and enhance your experience with us and the below is just an example of some of the many great benefits we offer:

• Free counselling services through Health Assured
• Cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
• Staff discount at Team Bath gym
• Staff discounts on postgraduate tuition fees
• Staff discount on language courses
• Generous employer contributory pension schemes
• Generous annual leave allowance with an additional 5 discretionary days so that you can enjoy a positive work life balance
• A wide range of personal and professional development opportunities including Apprenticeships, LinkedIn Learning and more
• Free entry to the Holburne Museum in Bath
• Local discounts and more
• A family-friendly workplace 
• An excellent reward package that recognises the talents of our diverse workforce
• Relocation allowance
• Visa reimbursement and Interest-Free Loan to help with the cost of some immigration expenses

Find out more about our benefits and watch the video to hear from our staff about what makes the University of Bath a great place to work as well as following us X and LinkedIn.

 

Closing Date: 14 Apr 2026

Department: Education & Research

Salary: £38,784 to £46,049