The Centre for Human & Applied Physiological Sciences (CHAPS) is situated within the School of Basic & Medical Biosciences(within the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine), which is led by Professor Mathias Gautel and comprises five departments with a wide range of expertise and interests. Using a bench to bedside approach, the School aims to answer fundamental questions about biology in health and disease and apply this knowledge to the development of new and innovative clinical practise, alongside providing a rigorous academic programme for students.

An opportunity to join a multidisciplinary Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital Charity funded study investigating mechanisms, risk factors and response to treatment of Long COVID symptoms, in the context of a randomised controlled trial of a novel psychophysiological intervention called Balance-ACT.

 

The Research Associate (Grade 6) will be responsible for performing a suite of physiological outcome measures designed to understand fatigue, breathlessness and physical activity in people with Long COVID symptoms who have been recruited to the Balance-ACT clinical trial. These physiological outcome measures will include lung function testing, tests of exercise capacity, muscle strength and fatiguability, and analysis of heart rate variability from ECG signals. The post holder will be responsible for day to day running of the physiological testing, physiological data analysis and will assist with recruitment and consenting of study participants. It is expected that the post holder will have some prior practical experience of human physiological testing, but the post-holder will receive comprehensive training in all aspects relevant to the Balance-ACT study including testing of cardiorespiratory and muscle function.

 

The successful candidate will join a multidisciplinary team of clinicians and scientists working across the spectrum of physical and mental health under the supervision of Dr Caroline Jolley and Professor Gerrard Rafferty. The work will be conducted in the Centre for Human and Applied Physiological Sciences laboratories in the King’s College Hospital Department of Respiratory Medicine on the Denmark Hill campus of King’s College London. The postholder will work in close collaboration with clinical colleagues in the community and hospital-based Long COVID services across King’s Health Partners, with strong links to the Department of Psychological Medicine.

 

This is a full time on campus post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract from 5 January 2026 until 30 April 2026.