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Computational Biologist - Cambridge, UK - Bionformatics Institute

An experienced computational biologist is sought to join a Wellcome Trust funded collaboration between laboratories from the European Bioinformatics Institute (Janet Thornton) and University College London (Linda Partridge, Dominic Withers, David Gems). The goals of the research programme are to understand how single gene mutations in the insulin/lgf-like signalling pathway extend healthy lifespan and ameliorate ageing-related disease. A variety of approaches, including functional genomic, are used and experimental systems include nemotode worms, fruit flies and mice.

The computational biologist will have responsibility for guiding a small team of bioinformaticians at the EBI in their activities to analyse microarray and other high-throughput data being generated by the UCL-based teams. The appointee will foster a research program to develop novel computational approaches for analysing microarray and deep sequencing data. As the research program of the consortium moves towards use of next-generation sequencing technologies, s/he will be expected to guide the adoption of these technologies by providing input into experimental design and devising strategies for downstream data analysis.

The EBI, located on the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus near Cambridge in the UK, is a global centre for biological data, hosting the very large sequence, structure and expression data resources in Europe as well as eight dedicated research groups. It provides an excellent research environment including access to outstanding students and post-doctoral scientists from around Europe, and computational facilities and support.

The successful applicant will have a PhD in a relevant discipline (biology, bioinformatics, computer science etc) and ideally will have had either some training in a numerate discipline and/or experience with statistical analysis. S/he will have 3-5 years research experience in computational biology, molecular biology and/or bioinformatics, including a strong publication record.

The ideal candidate will have experience in managing collaborative bioinformatics projects and will have in excess of 3 years experience in transcriptomics and microarray analysis. Experience with handling data for high-throughput technologies, such as microarrays, shotgun proteomics and/or deep-sequencing technologies would be a distinct advantage.

The incumbant will also have 3 plus years experience of writing bioinformatics software in one or more of Perl, Java, C++ and Python and have 2 years experience of using statistical software packages, especially R/Bioconductor. A high level of Unix familiarity is required as is some experience of programming web interfaces and/or applications. Exposure to programming with relational databases and constructing SQL queries is also required. Experience of network modelling and analysis and managing staff and/or students is desirable.

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills are essential

An initial contract of 3 years will be offered to the successful candidate. This can be renewed, depending on circumstances at the time of review.

For further information please visit http://www.embl.de and http://www.ebi.ac.uk

EMBL is an inclusive, equal opportunity employer offering attractive conditions and benefits appropriate to an international research organisation.

Note that special visa requirements apply to employees from non EU countries working at EMBL-EBI in the UK. The period of work does not qualify for the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme.

To apply, please email a cover letter, CV (in English) and contact information of three professional references quoting ref. no. NS/09/094/EBI in the subject line, to: applications@ebi.ac.uk

No agencies.