Research Fellow (Bioinformatics) [LKCMedicine]

Research Fellow (Bioinformatics)

Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) established in September 2010 is a partnership between Imperial College London and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. Consistently rated amongst the world's best universities, Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research while NTU is the only Singapore university listed in the Top 10 of the Times Higher’s 200 Under 50 Rankings and is ranked the world’s No. 1 young university by QS in the last three consecutive years.

LKCMedicine operates from two campuses – Yunnan Campus at Nanyang Technological University and Novena Campus, which is located in the precinct of the future HealthCity. At LKCMedicine, we recognize that synergies is the key to maximize research output and we seek to promote synergies between researchers in LKCMedicine itself and local and/or overseas researchers.  We strongly believe that building synergies and robust collaborations will be the key to maximizing research output in today’s competitive environment.

We are currently recruiting a Research Fellow to join Professor John Chambers’ group at LKCMedicine as part of the PRECISE-SG100K team. Professor Chambers is the Chief Scientific Officer of PRECISE (Precision Health Research, Singapore), the central entity coordinating a whole of government effort to implement Phase II of Singapore’s 10-year National Precision Medicine (NPM) strategy. NPM Phase II aims to transform healthcare in Singapore and improve patient outcomes through new insights into the Asian genome and data-driven healthcare solutions. PRECISE is spearheading the establishment of a large-scale database consisting of comprehensive phenotypic characterization and whole genome sequencing of 100,000 multi-ethnic Asian individuals under Singapore's NPM initiative.

The potential candidate will be a part of the PRECISE-SG100K data science team working on large scale population-based genetic studies that leverage the SG100K database. Candidate should have good communication and problem-solving skills, and the ability to work independently as well as in collaboration with multi-disciplinary teams across different partner institutions. 

Key responsibilities include but not limited to:

• Quality control of genomic (whole genome sequence), epigenomic, metabolomic, and transcriptomic data (including RNA-seq).

• Advanced bioinformatics and genetic analyses of thousands of clinical and molecular phenotypes at a population scale, including integrative omics studies.

• Evaluation and application of appropriate statistical techniques, as well as developing and implementing novel approaches, to for batch correction, imputation of missing data, and testing new hypotheses.

• Building databases and result visualization browsers.

• Scripting and automating robust analysis pipelines.

• Detailed record keeping (Git repository).

• Presentation of work-in-progress and results within the research group, using appropriate presentations format.

Key qualifications:

• PhD degree in bioinformatics or statistical genetics, computational biology, or related field.

• Experience working with big genomic datasets; a good understanding of genomic approaches (including but not limited to genome/phenome-wide association studies, burden tests, QTL studies, colocalization, fine-mapping)  is essential.

• Proficient in R, Python, Linux/Unix.

• Command over commonly used statistical genetics tools (e.g., PLINK, GCTA, HAIL, FUMA, variant predictor tools).

• Experience working in high performance computing cluster.

• Experience in AI/ML, cloud computing, web development are assets.

This opening will be based at LKCMedicine Novena Campus, Singapore. Salary will be commensurate with experience and qualifications.

Application Procedure:

Please apply with names of two referees. Only shortlisted candidates are notified.

Hiring Institution: LKC