Bioinformatician with expertise in Biology of Infections

Umeå University is one of Sweden’s largest higher education institutions with over 37 000 students and about 4 700 employees. The University offers a diversity of high-quality education and world-leading research in several fields. And the groundbreaking discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool, which was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was made here. At Umeå University, everything is close. Our cohesive campuses make it easy to meet, work together and exchange knowledge, which promotes a dynamic and open culture.

The ongoing societal transformation and large green investments in northern Sweden create enormous opportunities and complex challenges. For Umeå University, conducting research about – and in the middle of – a society in transition is what it is all about. But also about delivering education to enable regions to expand quickly and sustainably. This is simply where the future is built.

Department of Plant Physiology. Closing date: 2023-03-17.

As a national hub for molecular biosciences in Sweden, SciLifeLab develops and maintains unique research infrastructure, services and data resources for life science. The overall aim of SciLifeLab is to facilitate cutting-edge, multi-disciplinary life science research and promote its translation to the benefit of society. About 200 research groups, 1500 researchers and 40 national infrastructure units are associated with SciLifeLab, with two main centers located in Stockholm and Uppsala, but with national SciLifeLab units at all major Swedish universities.

The SciLifeLab and Wallenberg National Program for Data-Driven Life Science (DDLS) is a 12-year initiative that focuses on data-driven research, within fields essential for improving people’s lives, detecting and treating diseases, protecting biodiversity and creating sustainability. The program will train and recruit the next generation of data-driven life scientists and create strong and globally competitive computational and data science capabilities in Swedish life science. The program aims to strengthen national collaborations between universities, bridge the research communities of life and data sciences, and create partnerships with industry, healthcare and other national and international actors.

The DDLS program is now establishing a national Data Science Node in “Epidemiology and Biology of Infections” at Umeå university with a national responsibility to develop national data services and advanced data analytics support. The Data Science Node staff will be well integrated with the local research community, but also connected to the SciLifeLab National Infrastructures, in particular the Bioinformatics Infrastructure  (National Bioinformatics Infrastructure Sweden, NBIS), with over 100 experts, providing advanced bioinformatics support, infrastructure and training to the Swedish life science research community and participating in international collaborations. 

We are now looking for outstanding candidates with competences in analysis of large-scale, high-throughput genomic data, and related molecular and clinical data analysis, to provide advanced bioinformatics support to selected data-driven Swedish research projects of scientific excellence. Your work will include data analysis and scientific deduction at an internationally competitive level, as well as being a driver of bioinformatics postgraduate training. 

We are looking for a bioinformatician with experience of large-scale molecular research projects in immunology, pathogen-host interaction systems, or other relevant studies related to biology of infections. Technical competences of particular interest are single-cell and spatial omics data analysis, multi omics integration, and genomics and metagenomics of microorganisms. 

The Department of Plant Physiology hosts the largest bioinformatic section of Umeå university with over 20 bioinformaticians and the Swedish Metabolomic Facility. You will work in a strong group of bioinformaticians that both helping other scientist with analysis and are developing the field themselves. The bioinformatic group work with projects from all fields of life science. 

The department is part of the Umeå Plant Science Centre with total over 200 scientists in more than 35 research groups and with a strong, multi-disciplinary, collaborative and expanding research. We are also a strong partner in The Chemical-Biological Centre (KBC), a life science hub that hosts several national instrument and technology platforms. For more information about working at Umeå University: www.umu.se/en/work-with-us/ 

The main responsibilities are to:

• Carry out advanced data analyses within nationally prioritized data-driven projects
• Potentially develop tools and workflows for such analyses
• Educate other scientists in bioinformatics through collaboration within supported projects, give support at advanced national courses and consultations.
• Engage in the continuous development and improvement of the DDLS program, the Data Science Node, and the SciLifeLab Bioinformatics platform at a national level

We are looking for a highly motivated senior research engineer with a strong background and interest in Epidemiology and Biology of Infections. The successful candidate has 

(i) a PhD within bioinformatics or data science, or equivalent

(ii) extensive (5+ years) of experience from performing advanced scientific analyses on large-scale data sets, and ability to perform large-scale molecular data analysis and scientific deduction at an internationally competitive level 

(iii) proficiency in terminal-based work in a Linux environment and advanced scripting in a relevant scripting language (e.g Python, Perl or R)

(iv) very good oral and written communication skills in English, and 

(v) strong skills in cooperation and communication. 

Postdoctoral studies are a strong merit but not a requirement. Experience of advanced bioinformatics studies of the immune system, large-scale molecular studies of host-pathogen interactions, or large-scale microbial studies is of particular interest. Strong skills in experimental design as well as software development are also meriting. “Reproducible research” and “FAIR data” are central concepts to us, and expertise in the development of reproducible code by using code sharing platforms, workflow languages and container solutions is a strong merit.

The employment is full-time and permanent. Probationary employment may be applied. Starting date 2023-05-01 or according to agreement. 

Your application should contain 

• A personal letter, max 2 pages, including a motivation for why you want to join this effort.
• CV with publication list.
• Doctoral degree certificate

You apply via our recruitment system Varbi. Last application date is 2023-03-23.

Björn Nystedt, NBIS Support Manager, tel +46 18 471 44 13, [email protected]
Johan Trygg, UmU DDLS Data Science Node, tel +46 730 647 137, [email protected]
Johannes Hanson, Dept Plant Physiology, tel +46 722 243 283, [email protected]