Principal Bioinformatician

About the role:

The overall goal of the National Biomarker Centre (NBC) in the CRUK Manchester Institute, is to develop, validate and implement biomarkers that facilitate the optimisation of cancer patient treatment. In this regard, NBC is an acknowledged world leader in the study of minimally invasive biomarkers, or liquid biopsies, for improving cancer management. Our biomarker research integrates clinical, molecular and computational science into a highly interdisciplinary programme; advanced computational biology is critical to the biomarker agenda.

An exciting opportunity now presents for a Principal Bioinformatician to join the NBC. You will work alongside a multidisciplinary team of clinicians, biologists, engineers, and computational scientists to analyse genomics and epigenomics data arising from patient blood or urine samples. The primary focus will be to develop and apply a wide range of computational tools to sequencing data from liquid biopsy to develop novel biomarkers that help better characterise patient tumours.

About you:

You should have a PhD in Computational Biology/Bioinformatics, Data Sciences (or other related discipline) or a relevant postgraduate degree in Computational Biology/Bioinformatics, Data Sciences or a related discipline along with significant relevant experience. You will have significant experience in writing code for robust and reproducible analysis and demonstrable experience in many areas of bioinformatics pertaining to the analysis of high-throughput data. An understanding of liquid biopsies, cancer genomics, and cancer biology are desirable, as is experience in developing bioinformatics pipelines (e.g., Nextflow).

You will have excellent communication skills and the ability to converse successfully with interdisciplinary collaborators from non-mathematical backgrounds. Experience of multidisciplinary teamwork would be beneficial.

Why choose the CRUK National Biomarker Centre?

We are an internationally leading biomarker centre aligned to the world leading Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute (www.cruk.manchester.ac.uk ), an Institute of The University of Manchester (www.manchester.ac.uk ), The Biomarker Centre and Manchester Institute are core funded by Cancer Research UK (www.cancerresearchuk.org ), the largest independent cancer research organisation in the world.

The National Biomarker Centre is located in the New Paterson Building, a £150 million flagship purpose-built biomedical research facility directly attached to The Christie NHS Foundation Trust (www.christie.nhs.uk), in South Manchester. Situated on the third floor, the National Biomarker Centre offers world-class research facilities with bespoke, purpose-built suite of laboratories in close proximity to discovery science collaborators and the Christie Hospital’s clinical trialists.

Our Centre’s aim is to discover, develop, validate and qualify biomarkers that support optimised treatment of patients with cancer.  Our advanced research programmes span a spectrum of cancer research, from the molecular and cellular basis of cancer through to translational research and biomarker driven clinical trials.