Post-Doctoral Scientist – Computational Biology

Job Title: Post-Doctoral Scientist – Computational Biology
Location: Stevenage (LifeArc) & Cambridge (The Milner Institute)
Job Type: 3 year fixed term
At LifeArc, we want to hear from people who are as passionate as we are about making life science life changing that can improve patients’ lives.

A bit about the role:
LifeArc and the Milner Therapeutics Institute have been collaborating closely over the last four years to develop and apply bioinformatics tools to identify novel therapeutic targets, biomarkers and drug repositioning opportunities. By applying cutting-edge computational methods including AI and machine learning for analysis of multi-modal biomedical datasets, the team have identified new or better drug targets across a range of therapeutic areas. This collaboration has recently been expanded into a 5-year strategic partnership until 2026.
We are looking for a Post-Doctoral Scientist in Computational Biology to play a key role in the strategic partnership between LifeArc and the Milner Therapeutics Institute. The successful candidate will be co-located within LifeArc’s Data Sciences Group and the Milner Therapeutics Institute’s Computational Biology Group. As the successful candidate, you will be able to take full advantage of both environments, and the exciting opportunity to work at the interface between industry and academia. Using biological data from a variety of sources (third-party data, in-house data, and publicly available datasets); you will work with an interdisciplinary team to provide novel insights and hypotheses to drive LifeArc project decision making and selection.
• Identify and characterise novel targets/ biomarkers associated with LifeArc’s disease areas of interest
• Analyse internal as well as published biological or medical datasets with a focus on targets of interest for LifeArc
• Disease linkage and interactome analyses of molecular pathways of interest.
• Provide bioinformatics support for data analysis, interpretation, and presentation.
• Work closely with other scientists at LifeArc and Milner to contribute to various research projects
• Gather requirements, develop software collaboratively, propose validation experiments etc.
• Present ideas and results, including issues and possible solutions
• Publish (or contribute to the publication of) research findings and computational tools/resources in peer-reviewed journals

About you:
Education & experience required:

• A Master or PhD in bioinformatics, statistics, or a related scientific discipline.
• Expertise in computational analysis on biological and clinical data
• Statistical background in machine-learning, survival, or Bayesian techniques
• Experience in at least one programming language (such as Python or R)
• Experience analysing Next Generation Sequencing data such as ChIP-seq and RNA-seq
• Experience in integration, curation, and analysis of large-scale databases such as TCGA
• Experience in the use of relational databases such as MySQL or PostgreSQL
• Good theoretical knowledge of DNA & RNA bioinformatics.
• Working knowledge of LINUX operating systems
• PhD, Prior post-doctoral or industrial experience in a relevant scientific area would be desirable.

About us:
At LifeArc, our ambition is to make life science life changing. We do this by advancing scientific discoveries beyond the lab, faster, so that they can shape the next generation of diagnostics, treatments, and cures.
Working at the cutting edge of translational science and as the early-stage translation specialists, we progress scientific discoveries on their journey to becoming a medicine, diagnostic or intervention that can improve patients’ lives. Our work begins by seeking out innovative science, then helping to develop this to a point where there is a clinical and commercial pathway for others to invest the time and money to take it further forward.

What we can offer you:
Salary will be determined by qualifications and experience along with other exceptional benefits. Because we understand everyone has different requirements, our flexible benefits allow you to choose those which are important to you. Our pension scheme offers employer contributions of up to 12%, private health insurance, and annual leave of 31 days PLUS bank holidays.
Join us, and you’ll have the scope to be creative and take measured risks. You’ll be rewarded for your curiosity, for working as one team, and for learning fast. And you’ll have everything you need to be your best every day.
Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people from minority ethnic backgrounds, for example, are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At LifeArc we are dedicated in building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so whatever your background or lived experience, if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. Our top priority is finding the best candidate and you may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
We all have potential. At LifeArc, you’ll discover what you can really do with it.