Centre for Cancer Research: Bioinformatician, University of Edinburgh

• Vacancy Reference: 3016094
• Department: Centre for Cancer Research
• Job Title: Bioinformatician
• Job Function: Technical and Scientific Services
• Job Type: Full Time
• Live Date: 03-Aug-2012
• Expiry Date: 05-Sep-2012
• Salary Scale: £30,122 - £35,938
• Internal job: No. Anybody can apply for this position.
• Further Information: Further Information
• Conditions Of Employment: View Conditions of Employment

The Colon Cancer Genetics Group is seeking to recruit an enthusiastic new member of staff in Bioinformatics. The role will involve application of bioinformatic tools to achieve our aims, namely, to identify new genetic loci predisposing to large bowel cancer, elucidate the functional consequences of such inherited genetic risk factors and provide new understanding of mechanisms of cancer susceptibility. The post-holder will: manage, analyse and interpret large-scale datasets that we are generating from: NextGen Exome Sequencing; GWAS for common variants; GWAS for rare variants; expression arrays of normal/tumour tissues; methylation arrays; targeted sequencing; other approaches including ChIP and RNAseq. As well as conducting analyses, the post-holder will be responsible for primary data-processing (alignments, mapping reads to reference sequences etc), data handling, quality control, curation and collation. The post-holder will work closely with members of CCGG and will also collaborate with IGMM Bioinformatics Core. The post offers an exciting opportunity to work with a variety of scientists to combat a common fatal cancer.

The Human Genetics Unit has facilities and expertise in a wide range of disciplines; more information on the research in the Unit can be found at www.hgu.mrc.ac.uk/Research/

Research Objectives

The core aim of CCGG is to prevent large bowel cancer through elucidation of the genetic architecture of the disease and gaining new understanding the biological consequences of inherited genetic risk factors in normal colonic epithelium, colon cancer and other relevant tissues. The post will involve integration and interpretation of datasets generated in-house with other existing data (genomic sequence annotation, expression data, genotyping data etc). The successful candidate will be expected to be capable of working independently but will have supervision, direction and support from the PI and a statistical geneticist, as well as day-to-day interaction with CCGG scientists and technical staff, IGMM Bioinformatics Service and other computational biologists within the Unit and the wider IGMM. Duties will also include application of innovative computational approaches along with other Unit scientists for the analysis of large sequence datasets from next-generation sequencing technologies and will include interaction with staff at the University of Edinburgh GenePool sequencing Facility.

Qualifications Required

The post would suit a biologist with good programming skills or a computer scientist with experience in biology/bioinformatics. Candidates should hold a Ph.D. in Biology, Bioinformatics, Statistics, Computer Science or a closely related discipline and have appropriate experience in computational biology, genetics, molecular biology or a related field.

Informal enquiries can be made to Malcolm Dunlop or Susan Farrington malcolm.dunlop@igmm.ed.ac.uk or susan.farrington@igmm.ed.ac.uk.