Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Computational Biologist)

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

The post
The Faculty wishes to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to lead a programme of computational modelling and ‘omics analysis of the regulatory network dynamics of mammalian pluripotency. 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 computational research and supporting bioinformatics analyses to delineate developmental trajectories, uncover gene regulatory networks dynamics, and delineate cell fate transition paths.

You will work primarily with single cell NGS data from stem cell self-renewal, differentiation and perturbation studies, from natural embryos, and from embryoid models. 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, visualisation tools and machine learning approaches to interrogate multimodal ‘omics datasets. You will create mathematical and/or computational models of the pluripotency gene regulatory network and of cell fate transitions that will iteratively inform experimental analyses.

You will have scope to develop your own research and to supervise project students. You will also collaborate with wet lab researchers in the group and will have the opportunity to perform your own laboratory experiments if appropriate.

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

About you
The successful applicant will be able to develop research objectives, projects and proposals; identify sources of research funding and contribute to the process of securing funds, and make presentations at conferences and other events.

Applicants will possess a relevant PhD or equivalent qualification/experience in mathematical, computational, or systems biology, or in 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 a good understanding of statistics. 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 be familiar 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.

The University of Exeter
We are a member of the prestigious Russell Group of research-intensive universities and in the top 200 universities in the world (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 and QS World University Ranking 2024).  We combine world-class teaching with world-class research, achieving a Gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework Award 2023, underpinned by Gold ratings for Student Experience and Student Outcomes.

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

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