[BBC] Vacancy analysis genetic variants in Brussel

[Tom Lenaerts]

 We are looking for a doctoral student to work on a project wherein statistical and machine learning techniques will be used to decipher the genetic architecture of oligo- and polygenic disorders.  This work will be performed in the context of the new Interuniversity Institute for Bioinformatics in Brussels (http://www.ibsquare.be/ ), called (IB)2. 

The project

Recent advances in genome-wide sequencing technologies and data analysis have proven to be very successful in the delineation of the genetic basis of hitherto poorly understood, fully penetrant, monogenic disorders. In practice, disease-causing genetic variants are identified through a set of filtering steps, which potentially reduce the large collection of exonic variants, typically around 20000, to one or a few variants (or genes).  These filtering steps eliminate variants by assuming that the causative variants alter the RNA splicing or protein sequence, that they are rare in the normal healthy population, show complete penetrance and detectance. Although significant successes have been achieved with this approach, additional tools are still required when the outcome of the variant filtering does not provide a simple answer.

The task of filtering out the causative variants/genes becomes even more challenging when dealing with congenital conditions with complex inheritance patterns, distributed along an oligo- to polygenic continuum. In this context, the assumption is that a combination of rare variants spread over coding and non-coding genes is causative for the observed phenotype. Since these variants are rare in the population, it makes them hard to detect using standard single variant association tests and therefore more aggregative techniques are required. In this project we aim to develop methods that can distill, from the large collection of rare variants, those that have any relevance to the phenotype under investigation.  

The project is a collaboration between the Genetics Center of the Université Libre de Beuxelles (Hôpital Erasme and Hôpital Universitaire des Enfants Reine Fabiola), Center for Medical Genetics of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel) and the Machine Learning group and Artificial Intelligence lab of the Computer Science Departments of the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel respectively. 

Equal opportunity employer

(IB)2 and the connected universities, ULB and VUB, is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to employing more handicapped individuals and especially encourages them to apply. (IB)2 wishes to increase the proportion of women in areas in which they are underrepresented. Women are strongly encouraged to apply.
 
Responsibilities

·      Performing bioinformatics research in biomedical sciences with a focus on human genetics.
·      Development of machine learning techniques to filter and analyze variant data.
·      Development of bioinformatics pipelines for omics data assembly, analysis and annotation.
·     Assisting and enabling investigators in analyzing their data using developed and existing analysis tools and pipelines.
·      Presenting developments and results at international scientific meetings and in peer-reviewed international scientific journals.

Qualifications

·      Master in bioinformatics, computational biology, biostatistics, computer sciences, bioengineer,  life sciences or a related discipline
·      Research-oriented person for the primary analysis of omics data in the field of human genetics
·      Experience or a clear interest in computational biology and genomics and in particular in machine learning
·      Knowledge in bioinformatics and/or biostatistics
·      Experience or a clear interest in statistical computing (e.g.  R ,..)
·      Software and database development skills (e.g. Perl, SQL , Python, C++,… on different OS)
·      Well organized working style
·      Team player
·      High motivation to succeed in scientific and translational research
·      Strong oral and written communication skills (English and Dutch and/or French)

How to Apply

We need a letter of motivation, a CV, a copy of your PhD, Master and Bachelor diploma’s, PhD diploma (if applicable) and the contact information of two people who can provide references. In addition, we require a list of the grades obtained for the different courses during your master and bachelor education.

You can send these in PDF format to Tom Lenaerts (tlenaert at ulb.ac.be) mentioning “IBsquare SNP position” in the subject. For inquiries you can send a message to this same address.
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Benelux Bioinformatics Conference 2013 ; 
http://bbc2013.ibsquare.be
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ULB:	http://www.ulb.ac.be/di/map/tlenaert/
		http://mlg.ulb.ac.be/
VUB:	http://ai.vub.ac.be/




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