Postdoctoral Researcher / Senior Postdoctoral Researcher / (Cancer Genomics / Next Generation...

Title: Postdoctoral Researcher / Senior Postdoctoral Researcher / (Cancer Genomics / Next Generation Sequencing / Bioinformatics)

Salary: Aligned with IUA Research salary scale, up to a maximum starting equivalent p.a. salary of Level 2 Point 9 (€59,587 per annum) depending on experience

Department: Physiology and Medical Physics

Tenure: Specified purpose contract for 24 months (100% FTE)

Location: RCSI St. Stephens Green Campus, Dublin City Centre

Reporting to: Professor Annette Byrne, Head, RCSI Precision Cancer Medicine Group

Required Start Date: February 2022

As University of Medicine and Health Sciences , the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) is a degree-awarding health sciences institution specialising in medical and health sciences education, surgical training and research. As a global institution with undergraduate medical programmes in Dublin, Bahrain and Malaysia; Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, Physiotherapy, Postgraduate Studies and Nursing and Midwifery; and Leadership Institutes in Ireland and Dubai, RCSI has a broad international reach and the ability to unlock significant advancement for patient safety and clinical outcomes worldwide.

RCSI recognises that excellence in research is critical to the quality of its educational activities, its credibility, and, overall, to its mission to enhance human health. Recently, RCSI has implemented a new research strategy that will build upon its strength in translational biomedical and clinical research to deliver transformational, high impact changes in health care. Targeting both Irish national and EU funding, along with increased collaboration with industry, is a major part of the RCSI research strategy. Forging increased collaboration between RCSI PIs and industry is of critical importance to achieving success in this area. RCSI is also committed to provide its researchers with the supports and developmental opportunities to enable them to continuously grow and support their overall career development.

RCSI Precision Cancer Medicine (PCM) Group

The RCSI Precision Cancer Medicine (PCM) Group led by Professor Annette Byrne , is located in the RCSI Department of Physiology and Medical Physics .

The PCM Group focuses on the development of novel precision medicine approaches in the oncology setting and works to elucidate novel predictive biomarkers (genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic) and to identify new therapeutic targets. The overall goal is to improve patient outcomes with a particular focus on colorectal and brain malignancies. To achieve our objectives, we employ highly disruptive and innovative approaches including multi-modality molecular imaging, state-of-the-art preclinical models and Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) of clinical samples, having access to oncology patient data sets.

Professor Byrne coordinates and collaborates in several large European research projects funded by the European Union (www.colossusproject.eu , www.gliotrain.eu , www.europdx.eu , cordis.europa.eu/project/id/731105 ), as well as leading several national programmes funded by Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish Heath Research Board (HRB) and others.

Open Position

We are now seeking to recruit an experienced Cancer genomics/ bioinformatics post-doctoral researcher to join the PCM Group (colorectal cancer division). The successful appointee will work on a recently SFI funded “Frontiers for the Future programme (FFP)” project.

Dr Anguraj Sadanandam (ICR UL London, United Kingdom) is a key collaborator on the project and whilst the successful candidate will be based at RCSI, it is a requirement that in year 2 of the project they be seconded to ICR, UK for 6 months working in the Laboratory Systems and Precision Cancer Medicine. Dr Sadanandam’s group are currently applying their multidisciplinary skills to integrated science of systems biology to identify and test precise therapies for different subtypes of cancers using computational (artificial intelligence), experimental (including pre-clinical and in vivo models) and clinical (accessing clinical trial samples) biology.

Project Description

The SFI FFP project is entitled “Leveraging chromosomal instability for improved diagnosis and treatment in bevacizumab resistant metastatic colorectal cancer. The project builds on previous high impact publications (Nat Commun. 2018 Oct 5;9(1):4112 & J Clin Oncol. 2018 Jul 10;36(20):2052-2060) that have identified a new classification system (based on copy number alterations patterns) to predict mCRC patient response to chemotherapy + bevacizumab (BVZ) in RAS mutant mCRC patients. Based on these findings, we now wish to understand why tumours displaying high copy number alterations respond to BVZ, and unravel the underlying biology that drives this response.

Job description

The successful candidate will work in both RCSI and Institute of Cancer Research University of London (Secondment in Year 2 for 6 months). They will be responsible for all bioinformatic aspects of the project, in an effort to determine the biology underpinning bevacizumab’s response in high chromosomal instability tumours.

Key tasks that will be undertaken include:

• Establish patient CNA profiles to recently published mCRC CNA clusters
• Collate and analyse all data from the single cell RNAseq, bulk RNAseq and whole exome sequencing data
• Secondment for 6 months to the laboratory of Dr. Anguraj Sadanandam at Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) University Of London to perform phenMap data integration studies.
• Perform analyses to reveal novel contexts of vulnerability to potentially improve bevacizumab response in patients’ bearing low, medium or even high CIN tumours

The candidate will also be expected to:

• Contribute to grant and manuscript preparation, and support the PI in developing new programmes of research.
• Generally provide bioinformatics support to the Precision Cancer Medicine Group where required
• Organise and troubleshoot practical work independently and using their own initiative
• Communicate results in a professional manner in English
• Keep excellent records, submit research for publication in peer reviewed journals, and contribute to internal and external reporting as required
• Present research findings at international scientific conferences and meetings