Research Assistant with funding to undertake PhD

About the role:

We are seeking an applicant for a fully-funded HORIZON-MSCA-2023-DN Research Assistant position with funding to undertake PhD in the Computational Regulatory Genomics Group led by Professor Boris Lenhard. The overarching mission of our research group is to understand mechanisms that drive the expression of key regulatory genes shaping animal development and encoding a specific subset of transcription factors, cell adhesion molecules, and signalling proteins.

In our friendly and highly collaborative team, you will be a part of the DANIO-ReCODE Doctoral Network and lead an integrative computational analysis of animal regenerative pathways and their regulation, based on novel multiomics data produced by experimental laboratories participating in the network. This ambitious project aims to identify unique and shared regulatory events occurring at different stages of regeneration and across different regeneration models; characterise the promoter features and regulatory landscapes of genes downstream of each key transcription factor; compare these promoter and regulatory landscapes across short and long evolutionary distances; develop and release software tools for these comparative analyses; generate hypotheses for experimental validation by partner laboratories and analyse the validation data in collaboration with the network partners.

During the funding of HORIZON-MSCA-2023-DN you will be eligible to complete your PhD studies. You will receive extensive training in computational genomics, statistics and machine learning and attend computational biology courses for PhD students co-organised by Professor Lenhard. This training will give you a chance to become a highly competitive researcher in computational biology. As a member of the DANIO-ReCODE Doctoral Network, you will have an opportunity to visit partner research groups and benefit from the training in experimental methods and data generation that they can provide.

What you would be doing:

1. Implement the research objectives of the project.
2. Collaborate with partner laboratories within the DANIO-ReCODE Doctoral Network, and participate in the network meetings and training activities.
3. Investigate the existing high-throughput sequencing data related to this project and generate novel biological hypotheses.
4. Integrate and analyse the experimental data produced by other partners in the network and participate in the interpretation of results and design of validation experiments.
5. Develop new computational techniques for the project and adapt existing ones.

What we are looking for:

1. MSc degree or equivalent in molecular biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics / computational biology, computer science, mathematics or another relevant discipline.
2. Experience in R/Bioconductor or Python programming.
3. Comprehensive knowledge of molecular biology, with a focus on transcription regulation.

The eligibility criteria:

1. At the time recruitment by the host organisation, the candidate must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of their host organisation for more than twelve months in the three years immediately before the reference date.
2. The candidate must not hold a PhD degree at the time of recruitment.

For informal enquiries, please contact Professor Boris Lenhard: b.lenhard@imperial.ac.uk

Further Information:

This role is full time, fixed term until 31 October 2028 based at Hammersmith Campus.

Please note that job descriptions are not exhaustive, and you may be asked to take on additional duties that align with the key responsibilities mentioned above.

Closing date: 8^th January 2025

To apply, please click “Apply Now”.