Postdoctoral Research Fellow

This full time is available immediately on a fixed term basis until 30 April 2027.

This role offers the opportunity for hybrid working – some time on campus and some from home.

We welcome applications from candidates interested in working part-time hours or job-sharing arrangements.

The post

The Faculty wishes to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to lead a programme of computational modelling and ‘omics analysis of regulatory network dynamics in pluripotent stem cells and during synthetic embryogenesis. This Medical Research Council and European Research Council funded post in the group of Professor Austin Smith is available immediately. The role holder will develop a programme of programme of computational and bioinformatics analyses to delineate developmental trajectories, infer gene regulatory networks and dynamics, and model cell fate transition paths.

You will work primarily with single cell NGS data from stem cell differentiation time courses and perturbation studies, from natural embryos, and from synthetic embryoids. Studies will include comparative analyses between human, non-human primates and other mammals, using stem cells and embryos. You will create and implement algorithms, analysis methods and visualisation tools for interrogation of transcriptome and multimodal ‘omics datasets. You will create mathematical and/or computational models of the pluripotency gene regulatory network and of cell fate transitions that can inform experimental investigation.

You will have the opportunity to supervise project students. In addition to your own research, you will advise and support wet lab researchers in the group.

Prior knowledge in stem cell or developmental biology is not necessary, but experience in working closely with experimental researchers is essential.

About you

Applicants will possess a relevant PhD or equivalent qualification/experience in mathematical biology, systems biology or bioinformatics. The successful applicant will be a nationally recognised authority and possess sufficient specialist knowledge in the discipline to develop research programmes and methodologies. The successful applicant will also be able to work collaboratively, supervise the work of others and act as team leader as required. Applicants will have research expertise in high-throughput data analysis with competence in a UNIX/Linux environment and programming/scripting language. You will have experience in next generation sequencing pipelines, including transcriptomics, chromatin accessibility and single cell analyses. You should have a general understanding of molecular cell biology and be able to work in productive partnerships with experimental researchers. Specific knowledge of stem cell or developmental biology is not required, but you will have experience with biological data and be motivated to analyse and model biological processes.

Please ensure you read the Job Description and Person Specification for full details of this role.

For further information please contact Austin Smith, e-mail austin.smith@exeter.ac.uk.

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