Position title: Computational CRISPR Genomics - Bioinformatician

Employer: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

Closing date: Feb 1, 2021

Brief position description: An exciting new opportunity exists for a talented bioinformatics research officer to work on computational CRISPR genomics and develop a key role for computational research in CRISPR activities.

The role will be joint between the laboratories of Prof Tony Papenfuss in the Bioinformatics division and A/Prof Marco Herold in the Blood Cells and Blood Cancers division. The successful candidate will work in close collaborations with bench scientists, contribute to the design of CRISPR experiments, analyse genomic and transcriptomic data, and develop new bioinformatics methods related to CRISPR.

The Papenfuss Laboratory applies mathematical, statistical, and computational approaches to drive new cancer discoveries using large and complex omics datasets. A major focus of their work is cancer evolution, which is critical in understanding how tumours metastasise and develop resistance to therapies. They have particular interests in developing methods for detecting and understanding genomic rearrangements and for applying mathematical modelling and machine learning to make sense of big data.

The Herold Laboratory aims to identify novel genes involved in the development of normal and malignant haematopoiesis. They are using in vivo CRISPR approaches to systematically identify new candidate genes, with the ultimate goal of using these targets as novel anti-cancer therapies. They are also developing new CRISPR models and methodologies (e.g. CRISPR activation or Base Editing) to resemble human disease more accurately and are implementing CRISPR as a diagnostic tool to ultimately use it for detection of infectious disease or malignant cells.

Job website: www.wehi.edu.au/research-officer-computational-crispr-genomics

Contact name: Tony Papenfuss

Contact email: papenfuss@wehi.edu.au