Senior Computational Biologist

Senior Computational Biologist

• Salary in the range of £34,000 - £38,000 per annum (dependent upon experience)
• Job Ref: NBC/25/27
• Duration of post: 3 years fixed term

About the role:

We are looking for a motivated and talented Computational Biologist to join the Bioinformatics and Biostatistics (BBS) Team within the CRUK National Biomarker Centre (NBC) with a primary focus on analysis of single-cell and spatial transcriptomics and proteomics. The NBC’s mission is to develop, validate, and implement biomarkers that optimise cancer patient treatment. With an international reputation for the study of minimally invasive biomarkers, or liquid biopsies, NBC’s biomarker research integrates clinical, molecular and computational science into a highly convergent programme, aimed at improving cancer care. Advanced computational biology and data analysis are essential to this mission. 

In this role, you will work alongside a multidisciplinary team of clinicians, biologists, bioinformaticians and computational scientists to analyse bulk, single-cell, and spatial molecular datasets generated from patient samples and patient-derived models. You will collaborate closely with wet-lab biologists to design experiments and analyses aimed at investigating clinically relevant aspects of lung cancer biology, such as metastasis, tumour plasticity, and cancer immunology. There could also be scope to develop bioinformatics methods to support these investigations. You will work with large volumes of data generated at the NBC, including genomic, epigenomic, (single-cell) transcriptomic, immunogenomic and imaging data, arising from patient blood samples, as well as mouse xenograft and patient tissue samples. You will also benefit from state-of-the-art facilities at the NBC and the closely aligned CRUK Manchester Institute, including access to a high-performance computing facility. 

About you:

You should have a postgraduate degree in Bioinformatics/Computational Biology or related discipline (or equivalent relevant experience), along with some experience with single cell bioinformatics or a strong desire to learn and gain experience. Alternatively, you should have an undergraduate degree in Bioinformatics/Computational Biology or related discipline as well as significant relevant single cell bioinformatics/computational biology research experience.

You will be familiar with standard bioinformatics tools for analysing bulk and single cell transcriptomic data, have demonstrable experience writing code for robust and reproducible analysis (R is the preferred language), and have a strong comprehension of molecular biology. Experience in bioinformatics analysis of other molecular data types, such as epigenomics, genomics, or proteomics data is desirable, as is technical expertise in raw NGS data processing using bioinformatics pipelines or the Linux command line. Experience in cancer biology and biomarker development is also desirable, as is experience in statistical/machine learning approaches for analysing high-throughput molecular data.

You will have excellent communication skills and the ability to converse successfully with interdisciplinary collaborators. Experience of multidisciplinary teamwork would be beneficial.

Why choose Cancer Research UK National Biomarker Centre?

The Cancer Research UK National Biomarker Centre (https://cruknbc.org/) is a leading and highly specialised translational research centre within The University of Manchester (www.manchester.ac.uk), aligned with the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute (www.cruk.manchester.ac.uk), and core-funded by Cancer Research UK (www.cancerresearchuk.org), the largest independent cancer research organisation in the world. In spring 2023 the Institute moved into the state-of-the-art Paterson Building, a £150 million flagship purpose-built biomedical research centre directly attached to The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in South Manchester (www.christie.nhs.uk), one of the largest cancer treatment centres in Europe. 

For any informal enquiries about this post, please contact Dr Vsevolod Makeev via: seva.makeev@cruk.manchester.ac.uk  

Closing date: Sunday 8th June at 11:59pm

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