Bioinformatics Research Assistant

About us

Applications are invited for the post of Bioinformatics Research Assistant at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, ranked the best place in the world to study Ophthalmology (CWUR Rankings by Subject 2017).

This Research Assistant post offers an exciting opportunity to play a key role in research into the genetic causes of inherited eye diseases in a highly successful and dynamic research group.

About the role

Duration: The position is funded for 12 months in the first instance, starting from 1st Oct 2025

Salary: UCL Grade 6b, spine point range 25-26 (£38,607 - £39,257)

The post is NOT eligible for visa sponsorship

The Research Assistant will work as part of a team to characterise dysregulation of genes, transcripts and pathways and to identify elusive genome variants causing inherited eye diseases.

The position would suit an ambitious graduate with a background and interest in human genetics and bioinformatics. The successful candidate would have experience with running bioinformatic pipelines and data analysis skills in R and/or python. Experience with genomics and transcriptomics is highly desirable (e.g RNA-seq, WGS and long-read NGS analysis). The Research Assistant will work as part of a multidisciplinary team, and with established collaborators, to investigate the causes of inherited eye diseases, and omics data derived from primary and iPSC derived cell models.

The appointed individual will join collaborative teams led by Prof Alice Davidson, Prof Alison Hardcastle, Prof Mike Cheetham, Prof Jacqui van der Spuy and Assoc/Prof Nikolas Pontikos.

About you

The successful applicant should have a MSc in a relevant subject, experience with analysing NGS data (genomics and transcriptomics), programming skills, data management experience and excellent communication skills with a strong commitment to high quality research. The successful applicant will be interested in identifying disease pathways, applying bioinformatic pipelines and mining data, and enjoy working as a team as well as the ability to work independently.

What we offer

Working with some of the greatest intellects in the world, UCL also offers a generous pension scheme and holiday allowance, plus closure and bank holidays as well as enhanced parental pay and more. Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more.

Application Process

Please ensure you attach your CV, detailing your highest academic qualification, research experience and list of publications/presentations. Also, please provide a personal statement in a cover letter describing how you meet the criteria and what attracts you to this post in support of your application. Please DO NOT attach research papers.

The advert will close at midnight on 4th June.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

We particularly welcome applications from black and minority ethnic candidates as they are under-represented within UCL at this level.

Our department holds an Athena SWAN Silver award, in recognition of our commitment and demonstrable impact in advancing gender equality

Customer advert reference: B02-08623

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