Staff Associate - Bioinformatics

The Chan, Concepcion, and Taylor labs at Columbia University Medical Center are seeking an enthusiastic and exceptionally motivated scientist, with a BA/BS in computer science, bioinformatics, or a related field, and with experience in computational biology to join research teams that study broad chromosome alterations (aneuploidy), genetic and epigenetic deregulation that contribute to oncogenesis and therapeutic responses.

The successful candidate will have a strong interest in analysis of large-scale genetic datasets with the ultimate goal of discovering novel cancer drivers and therapeutic vulnerabilities. The position will involve developing and implementing methods and pipelines for analysis of a diverse range of datasets including whole genome sequencing, transcriptome sequencing, DNA copy number analysis, chromatin profiling (CUT&RUN, ATAC-seq), single cell -omics and CRISPR screens. Prior experience with one or more of these data types is strongly preferred.

The successful candidate will be highly motivated and collaborative with strong communication skills, and should have the desire to interface both with other computational/quantitative biologists and functional biologists. Applicants should have proficiency and substantial programming experience in R and/or Python Familiarity or proficiency with Matlab or other languages as used in biomedical research/biomedical informatics will be a plus.

In addition to technical and scientific knowledge, this individual should have excellent organizational and interpersonal skills and the ability to perform meticulous record keeping. Candidates with a BS/MS degree and future plans to attend MD, PhD, or MD/PhD programs after a period in the lab are strongly encouraged to apply, and career development to this end will be enthusiastically supported.

Specific duties will include:

• Set-up and maintain AWS in the lab
• Deploy existing programs and algorithms for analysis of next-generation sequencing data in support of multiple projects
• Develop and maintain pipelines for analysis of next-generation sequencing data
• Maintain large-scale datasets generated by the laboratory
• Genomic/transcriptomic discovery of novel somatic alterations that drive cancer and the potential for developing independent projects in this area
• Communicate and work with experimentalists in the lab, and present in lab/departmental meetings
• Train other lab members in basic analyses

Qualifications:

• BS/MS/PhD in computer science, bioinformatics, or related quantitative discipline
• Strong programming experience in R and/or Python and familiarity with Matlab
• Experience with data visualization of information gleaned from large-scale datasets
• Prior experience with analysis of next-generation sequencing data is strongly preferred
• Excellent interpersonal skills with a collaborative attitude
• Detail-oriented with excellent organizational skills