Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

This full time, Medical Research Council and European Research Council funded post is available immediatelyon a fixed term basis until 30 April 2027.

The post

You will lead bioinformatics research in pluripotency, human embryo development and synthetic embryogenesis in the group of Professor Austin Smith. You will develop a programme of computational and bioinformatics analyses to delineate developmental trajectories, decipher the regulatory networks of pluripotency and generate predictive models of GRN dynamics.

You will work primarily with single cell NGS data from stem cell differentiation time courses and perturbation studies, from natural embryos, and from synthetic embryoids. Studies will include comparative analyses between human, non-human primates and other mammals, using stem cells and embryos. You will create and implement algorithms, analysis methods and visualisation tools for interrogation of multi-omic single cell datasets.

You will have the opportunity to supervise project students. In addition to your own research, you will advise and support wet lab researchers in the group. You will implement and maintain NGS bioinformatics pipelines and be responsible for data management for the group.

Prior knowledge in stem cell or developmental biology is not necessary, but experience in working closely with experimental researchers is essential.

About you

You will:

- be able to develop research objectives, projects and proposals

- be able to identify sources of research funding and contribute to the process of securing funds and make presentations at conferences and other events

- possess a relevant PhD or equivalent qualification/experience in bioinformatics or computational biology

- be a nationally recognised authority in bioinformatics and possess sufficient specialist knowledge in the discipline to develop research programmes and methodologies.

- be able to work collaboratively, supervise the work of others and act as team leader as required

- have research expertise in high-throughput data analysis with competence in a UNIX/Linux environment and programming/scripting language

- have experience in next generation sequencing bioinformatics pipelines, including transcriptomics, chromatin accessibility and single cell analyses

- have a general understanding of molecular cell biology and of next generation sequencing methodologies and be able to work in productive partnerships with experimental researchers

Specific knowledge of stem cell or developmental biology is not required, but you will have experience with biological data and be motivated to analyse and understand biological processes.

Please ensure you read the Job Description and Person Specification for full details of this role.

The University of Exeter

We are a member of the prestigious Russell Group of research-intensive universities and in the top 150 universities in the world (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022 and QS World University Ranking 2022).  

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Commitment

With over 27,000 students and 6,400 staff from 180 different countries we offer a diverse and engaging environment where our diversity is celebrated and valued as a major strength. We are committed to creating an inclusive culture where all members of our community are supported to thrive; where diverse voices are heard through our engagement with evidence-based charter frameworks for gender (Athena SWAN), race equality (Race Equality Charter Mark), LGBTQ+ inclusion (Stonewall Diversity Champion) and as a Disability Confident employer. Whilst all applicants will be judged on merit alone, we particularly welcome applications from groups currently underrepresented within our working community. Reasonable adjustments are available for interviews and workplaces.

What we can offer you

• Freedom (and the support) to pursue your intellectual interests and to work creatively across disciplines to produce internationally exciting research;
• Support teams that understand the University wide research and teaching goals and partner with our academics accordingly
• An Innovation, Impact and Business directorate that works closely with our academics providing specialist support for external engagement and development
• Our Exeter Academic initiative supporting high performing academics to achieve their potential and develop their career

• A beautiful campus set in the heart of stunning Devon

Further information

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Austin Smith, [email protected]