Skip to main content

This job has expired

Postdoc/Bioinformatician/Computational Biologist to study human neurodegenerative diseases

Employer
UCSF
Location
San Francisco, California
Salary
Salary Commensurate with Experience
Closing date
Sep 27, 2020

Job Details

We are seeking an innovative Bioinformatician who will be integral in a multidisciplinary effort for identifying markers of selective vulnerability in neurodegenerative diseases, with the goal of developing effective therapeutic strategies.

The ideal candidate has a strong background in bioinformatics, computer science or software engineering, experience in the life sciences. Working with neuropathologists, neurologists and neuroscientists, you will help design and analyze high dimensional data (e.g., single-cell sequence assays, genotype or WGS data, proteomics data, etc.) from human brain tissues, utilize bioinformatics tools and databases to provide biological interpretations and insights.

Successful candidates should be scientifically motivated self-starters, comfortable working in a highly productive academic environment, and keen on modeling biological processes using rich datasets.

This position presents an outstanding training experience for a bioinformatics scientist who wishes to break into dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and neurodegenerative disease field. Neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration, selectively target specific neuronal subpopulation making it imperative to define the molecular signature of these vulnerable populations for achieving effective treatment

The candidate will work with a multidisciplinary team as part of the Weill Neurohub, which brings together world-class researchers and clinicians at three premier West Coast research institutions to speed the development of new treatments for neurological and psychiatric diseases. The primary appointment will be at the Memory and Aging Center at UCSF at the Grinberg (https://grinberglab.ucsf.edu/) and Seeley (https://seeleylab.ucsf.edu/lab) Labs 

Key responsibilities:

• Create, implement and maintain pipelines for processing high-throughput next-generation sequencing data for genomics, epigenomics, and transcriptomics studies

• Analyze and extract biological insights from internal and public datasets by developing new computational methods or leveraging existing methods when possible

• Implement and develop data analysis/visualization tools to enable data access

 

 

Qualifications:

 

 

· MS or Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics or a related field

· Experience with pipeline development, bioinformatics tools, and data management

· Strong demonstrated competence in languages such as R or Python for bioinformatics analyses

· Experience with cloud-based storage and service tools (Google, AWS, etc.)

· Strong collaboration and communication skills are expected

· Experience with epigenetic and transcriptomic data and academic achievement are pluses

Company

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It is the only campus in the 10-campus UC system dedicated exclusively to the health sciences. Memory and Aging Center The mission of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center is to provide the highest quality of care for individuals with cognitive problems, to conduct research on causes and cures for degenerative brain diseases, and to educate health professionals, patients and their families. Grinberg Lab The Grinberg lab, part of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, is led by Dr. Lea T. Grinberg, a MD/PhD with a background in neuropathology and neuroanatomy. Our goal is to investigate and clarify the basic principles and pathogenesis of aging and early-stage neurodegenerative disease using postmortem human tissue of normal controls and patients as the foundation. Our unique approach allows for simultaneous investigation of several aspects of the complex pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disease putting us in a strategic position for identifying therapeutic targets relevant to the earliest stages of these diseases years before the first clinical manifestations. Seeley Lab The Selective Vulnerability Research Laboratory is led by Dr. William Seeley, a neurologist and neuroscientist who specializes in neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Seeley is based at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center (MAC), part of the Department of Neurology in the UCSF School of Medicine. We study human brain organization in health and use this information to pinpoint how specific neurodegenerative diseases disrupt normal brain functioning. Our laboratory employs two major complementary approaches. Using modern neuroimaging techniques, we map the specific neural networks and regions targeted early in each disease. We then direct our investigations to the cellular and molecular levels with quantitative neuropathological experiments focused and guided by our neuroimaging results. Our goals are to (1) clarify mechanisms of selective vulnerability and disease progression and (2) to develop tools for monitoring change in patients during life. Our work is based on the principle that understanding selective vulnerability will prove helpful, and perhaps even necessary, in the search for effective treatments.

Get job alerts

Create a job alert and receive personalized job recommendations straight to your inbox.

Create alert