Position title: Bioinformatics Research Officer

Employer: The Garvan Institute of Medical Research

Closing date: 03.03.2020

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 Opportunity

Reporting to A/Prof Elgene Lim and Dr Liz Caldon as a part of Connie Johnson Breast Cancer Research Group and Replication and Genome Stability Group, Cancer Research Division the Research Officer is accountable under direction for conducting research that seeks to identify the biological, genetic and molecular processes in breast cancer. Specifically, this position will be responsible for leading the analysis of transcriptomics, genomic and single cell datasets. A high level of interaction with other bioinformaticians, ROs, RAs and PhD students within the Cancer Research Division is essential.

As the project develops, additional RAs and PhD students may be recruited to the project and the Bioinformatics Research Officer would be expected to assist in their supervision. Assistance in the preparation of research grant proposals, presentations and publications will be expected. This is a two-year full time opportunity to start.

Key Responsibilities
● Recording and assisting with design and interpretation of experimental procedures and results
● Conducting leading-edge informatic analysis of genetic and genomic datasets
● Regular meeting with A/Prof Elgene Lim and Dr Liz Caldon and members of the Cancer Research Division to discuss and review current and future techniques and experiments
● Making presentations of research progress to the Cancer Research Division and other collaborative groups as required
● Undertaking several research projects in an efficient and timely manner and have the outcomes of these projects published under joint authorship in leading scientific journals.
● Providing general research guidance to more junior research staff whose work might have an impact on wider division research goals.

About You
In order to be successful in this position, you will demonstrate the following key skills and attributes:
• The incumbent should possess a Masters or PhD in Bioinformatics or equivalent experience in a related field
• Advanced user of the R programming language and R-based statistical packages and tools, such as those available from the Bioconductor project for high throughput genomic data analysis
• Good knowledge of statistics and presentation of molecular/clinical data
• Experience in the analysis and interpretation of large genomic data sets (WGS, RNAseq)
• Excellent computational background, especially in the management of large data sets in unix/linux environment
• High proficiency in programming and scripting languages (e.g. C/C++, Java, Perl, Python)
• A proven track record, e.g. publications, grants, software/tool development
• Familiarity with the ethical issues and guidelines relating to the use of human tissue and clinical data for research
• Good background knowledge of cancer genetics/biology is desirable
• Excellent problem solving and project management skills is required whilst working independently on projects to meet tight deadlines

How to Apply
Australian/NZ citizen, permanent resident of other applicants with full working rights can only apply.
All applications must include a cover letter along with your resume with at least 2 referees. We are reviewing applications as they are received. This position will remain open until filled.

Job website: https://www.garvan.org.au/

Contact name: Shree Chattopadhyay

Contact email: shreec@garvan.org.au