[BBC] Two postdoctoral positions at the Clinical Bioinformatics lab - Imagine Institute, Paris

[Antonio Rausell]

Dear all,

Two postdoctoral positions are available at the new Clinical Bioinformatics lab at Imagine Institute for Genetic diseases, headed by Dr. Antonio Rausell:

JOB DESCRIPTION

Imagine is an interdisciplinary research center focused on human genetic diseases located at the Necker Hospital campus in the heart of Paris. Imagine is affiliated with the Université Paris Descartes (Sorbonne Paris Cité), the INSERM French National Institute for Medical Research and the Paris Public Hospitals Group (Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris). Coming in March 2016 Imagine will launch a new research Laboratory in Clinical Bioinformatics under the direction of Dr. Antonio Rausell. The laboratory will develop statistical methods and bioinformatics pipelines with a clinical focus on the following two main research lines: 

1) Computational assessment and prioritization of human rare genetic variants with a potential clinical impact and application to disease-specific sequencing projects. Both coding and non-coding variants will be considered. The work will integrate large-scale genome/exome sequencing, transcriptomes (RNA-seq), high-throughput proteomics (mass spectrometry), immune phenotyping and clinical datasets both from public and in-house sources. Development of predictive tools will include machine-learning techniques such as Bayesian classifiers and SVMs. The goal is implementing software to help decision-making at the clinic.

2) Statistical analyses of high-dimensional single-cell data of human cells (mainly single-cell RNA-seq) with a focus on immune disorders and susceptibility to infectious diseases. Computational methods will be developed to cope with different noise sources and complex experimental designs: e.g. multiple conditions/stimuli and time points, simultaneous analyses of host and intracellular pathogens and several read-outs from the same cells, e.g.: genome and transcriptome, transcriptome and proteome, etc. The goal is the identification of cell markers with clinical value for diagnosis and treatment.

In this context, the Clinical Bioinformatics lab is hiring two postdocs with complementary expertise in order to i) take the lead in one of the two previous research lines, ii) being able to assist the other line with specific skills if needed, and iii) set up the suite of common data and pipelines to build the core’s lab. As someone said before: “we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do”.

PROFILE REQUIREMENTS

Applicants should have a PhD in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Computer Science, Biostatistics, Statistical Genetics or Medical Informatics and at least one first author paper in a peer-reviewed journal. Demonstrated experience in NGS and large-scale ‘omics’ data analyses and strong data analyses skills are required. Experience in the research topics described above is preferable. Knowledge/interest in human innate immunity, infectious diseases, population genetics or structural biology will be appreciated.

We are looking for knowledgeable candidates with versatile skills, with an eye on basic science and another on translational applications in the clinic. Flexibility to move across different projects, curiosity to enter into new topics and a team-building spirit are required. The position will require a constant interaction with experimental labs and clinicians.

HOW TO APPLY

Interested candidates should submit a single pdf application file to recruitment011.clinicalbioinfo at institutimagine.org with the following items:
- Detailed CV (maximum 4 pages) with list of publications
- A 3-page summary of past research, describing your specific contributions to your papers.
- A 3-page statement of research interests, indicating which of the above described lines you would like to lead, the skills that you could contribute to our lab and your career development plans.
- BSc/MSc/PhD official transcripts.
- Contact information of three references.

The desired starting date is March-June 2016. However, the positions could remain open beyond this date until suitable candidates are found. Informal inquiries can be addressed to Dr. Antonio Rausell to: recruitment011.clinicalbioinfo at institutimagine.org