Principal Computational Biologist

About the role:
A post for a Principal Computational Biologist is currently available within the Manchester Centre for Cancer Biomarker Sciences (MCCBS) led by Prof Caroline Dive CBE at the CRUK Manchester Institute (CRUK MI) linking with colleagues at the University's Single Cell Centre. The MCCBS has an international reputation for liquid biopsies and the post holder will focus on the analysis of genomics data derived from individual cancer cells, including Circulating Tumour Cells (CTCs, see Carter et al. (2017) Nature Medicine). Within the MCCBS, you will join the Bioinformatics and Biostatistics (BBS) Team led by Dr Alastair Kerr and work closely with Prof Ged Brady the MCCBS deputy and leading expert in nucleic acids biomarkers.

You will be (or become) an expert in and champion single cell analysis, developing grant applications within the team and providing guidance to enable best practice for experimental design. Working with the CRUK MI High Performance Computing [HPC] Team, you will enable programs and pipelines for analysis, establish approaches for the integration of the analysis with multiple genome-wide '-omics datasets including DNA and RNA sequencing and turn these into robust analytical pipelines that will be used to explore the clinical consequences of inter-cell heterogeneity on tumour evolution and therapy responses.

Longer-term ambitions include the analysis of single cell methylomics and ChIP sequencing data. You will have access to the dedicated HPC genomics core facility at the CRUK MI, and will write computationally intensive code to analyse high volumes of cancer genomics data.

About you:
You will have a PhD in Computational Biology, Statistics, or a related discipline or a relevant postgraduate degree plus significant relevant experience. You will have strong communication skills and a desire to apply your talents collaboratively with scientists across disciplines with an ethos of team science.

In addition, you will have significant relevant experience developing R/Bioconductor, be conversant with software engineering techniques and have an excellent grasp of the statistical approaches used to analyse genome-wide datasets. The post will suit a highly enthusiastic scientist with a desire to see single cell genomics help unravel tumour heterogeneity and evolution to optimise precision medicine for cancer patients.

Why choose Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute?
The Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute (), an Institute of The University of Manchester (), is a world-leading centre for excellence in cancer research. The Institute is core funded by Cancer Research UK (), the largest independent cancer research organisation in the world. We are currently situated at the internationally-renowned life sciences campus at Alderley Park in Cheshire England, 15 miles from Manchester, a vibrant and dynamic city surrounded by beautiful countryside.

We are partnered with The Christie NHS Foundation Trust (adjacent to the CRUK MI Paterson Building) in South Manchester (), one of the largest cancer treatment centres in Europe. These factors combine to provide an exceptional environment in which to pursue basic, translational and clinical research programmes.

Our aim is to understand the fundamental basis of cancer and apply that knowledge to developing new treatment strategies for cancer patients. Our advanced research programmes span a spectrum of cancer research, from the molecular and cellular basis of cancer through to drug discovery, translational research and clinical trials.

The Institute has access to outstanding laboratory facilities and exceptional core services, including next generation sequencing, microarrays, confocal microscopy, bioinformatics, histology and mass-spectrometry.

Additional Information:
On the 26th April 2017 The Paterson Building, which housed most of the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Manchester Institute, caught fire resulting in significant damage. We shall be rebuilding our world-class research facilities and we would like to make you aware that in the meantime, the primary place of work for this position will be at the internationally-renowned life sciences campus at Alderley Park, which has excellent facilities to carry out research. We anticipate that this will be for a few years, after which we will return to our original site in Withington, Manchester, next to The Christie NHS Foundation Trust (Wilmslow Road, M20 4BX).

To apply candidates should follow the following link to the Cancer Research UK website:

Enquiries about the vacancy, shortlisting and interviews:
Name: Dr Alastair Kerr, BBS Team Lead
Email:

This vacancy will close for applications at midnight on the closing date.

Please see link below for the Further Particulars document which contains the person specification criteria that you should address in your application.