Computational Biology Postdoc @ Sydney


Employer: Garvan Institute of Medical Research

Closing date: 30-11-2019

Brief position description: The Garvan Institute of Medical Research (Garvan) is one of Australia’s leading medical research institutes, with over 600 scientists, students and support staff. Its mission is to make significant contributions to medical research that will change the directions of science and medicine and have major impacts on human health. Garvan’s research encompasses immunology, bone biology, neuroscience, diabetes and metabolism, cancer, and genomics and epigenetics. These research activities are organised within four themes: Cancer, Inflammatory Diseases, Healthy Aging, and Genomics, and two Centres: the Kinghorn Centre for Clinical Genomics and the Garvan-Weizmann Centre for Cellular Genomics.

The Kinghorn Centre for Clinical Genomics (KCCG), established by the Garvan Institute is an Australian research and sequencing centre delivering genomic information for clinical use. The KCCG facilitates genome-based research, particularly in cancer and monogenic diseases, but also in complex disease such as diabetes, osteoporosis and immunological disease. Our vision is to translate medical research into clinical care in Australia and beyond by integrating sequencing, bioinformatics and data management in a cutting-edge Genomics research environment.

The Translational Genome Informatics Group (TIG) within KCCG is a multidisciplinary team of bioinformaticians, statisticians, software engineers and clinical researchers, developing and deploying bioinformatic methods to study genomic variation, focussed on particular diseases. This work includes rare monogenic disease and cancer as well as complex diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis and immunological immune diseases.

This position will work with the team leader of the Translational Genome Informatics Group to perform research into translational genomics, including developing, streamlining, and validating approaches for analysing and interpreting multi-omic data with the focus on clinical translation.

The role will be responsible for developing new bioinformatic approaches to study unique aspects of various diseases, and incorporate these into the analytical pipeline. These methods should be developed in a manner consistent with KCCG’s development practices, so that they can be translated into the clinical pipeline. There is scope within this position to perform genomics and bioinformatics research, publish scientific papers, and to pursue independent funding.

The Opportunity
Reporting to the Head of Translational Genomics, this position will be responsible for helping to provide direction and support in clinical genomics, genome informatics and translational research in cancer genomics. This will include:

Undertaking and directing translational research with an emphasis on developing biological insights that are relevant to patient outcomes.
Improve the breadth, quality and efficiency of existing genomic analysis pipelines, through development of improved bioinformatics approaches.
Develop approaches to optimise and streamline interpretation of genomes.
Occasionally represent KCCG at events, or talks with external stakeholders.
Staying abreast on advances in genomics and next generation sequencing technology in general as well as maintaining knowledge about clinical genomic testing and personalised medicine.
The position will be offered full-time for 2 years in the first instance.

About You
PhD degree in a related area of science, or equivalent, or Master’s degree with at least 3 years of experience
Highly developed skills in bioinformatics and genomics
Strong expertise in working with next-generation sequencing data
Ability to develop, manage and maintain internal and external relationships
Highly developed written and verbal communications skills
Project management skills

Desired
Strong expertise in clinical interpretation of genomic data
Software engineering skills: source control management, unit and regression testing, continuous integration
Expertise in developing diagnostic assays, and assessing their analytical performance

How to Apply
All applications must include a cover letter, resume including at least 2 referees and copies of relevant qualifications / academic transcripts

Closing Date
The position will remain open until filled. As we will be reviewing applications as they are received, we encourage you to submit yours as soon as possible.

Job website: http://garvan.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/garvan_institute/job/Sydney/Senior-Computational-Biologist_PRF5142-1

Contact name: Shree Chattopadhyay

Contact email: shreec@garvan.org.au