In collaboration with the Novo Nordisk Oxford Research Centre, we are offering four one year internships to students who are working at the Masters level or above. These positions will be based at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) in Hinxton near Cambridge and will be in the following areas (within the groups named):
Genetic associations in cardiometabolic diseases (Daniel Zerbino)
The Ensembl Post-GWAS pipeline is a service which allows medical geneticists to compare GWAS summary statistics for all available epigenomic and eQTL data. We will test its relevance to understanding disease mechanisms and detecting promising candidate drug targets by running it at scale on GWAS results related to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), cardiovascular diseases and obesity.
Use of metabolomics data to strengthen target hypotheses (Claire O'Donovan)
The rapid increase in the availability of clinical metabolomics data has highlighted the value of such data alongside complementary 'omics data sources to strengthen target hypotheses and the need to develop new strategies for data capture and integration to achieve this.
Using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to understand the molecular mechanisms of disease and to discover novel disease-target and target-drug associations (Maria Martin)
We will develop a knowledge graph integrating relevant entities (e.g. proteins, disease, compounds/drugs) from public resources and use machine learning and Artificial Intelligence to predict relations between these entities. The goal is to select a set of target-compound associations which could be tested in Novo Nordisk labs
Novel target hypotheses from the side effect profiles of drugs (Andrew Leach)
In this project, we seek to explore how drug side effects can be used to suggest novel drug indications and targets in areas of therapeutic interest by integrating and analysing drug-side effect associations, chemogenomic and bioinformatic resources.
More details about all projects can be found on our careers website.
About EMBL-EBI
The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) is part of EMBL, Europe's flagship laboratory for the life sciences. We make the world’s public biological data freely available to the scientific community via a range of services and tools, perform basic research and provide professional training in bioinformatics.
About Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk is a global healthcare company with more than 90 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes care. The Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford is an innovative target discovery and translational research unit with a focus on identifying novel, game-changing therapies for patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic diseases.
Your role
Each internship will provide an opportunity not only to work at one of the world's leading bioinformatics and "big data" institutes but also to actively tackle problems that are of direct relevance to the discovery and development of new medicines. Novo Nordisk scientists will also be directly involved in each project.
You have
Masters level or above
You might also have
Please refer to each individual position for further details on relevant skills.
Why join us
At EMBL-EBI, we help scientists realise the potential of ‘big data’ in biology by enabling them to exploit complex information to make discoveries that benefit mankind. Working for EMBL-EBI gives you an opportunity to apply your skills and energy for the greater good. As part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), we are a non-profit, intergovernmental organisation funded by 22 member states and two associate member states. We are located on the Wellcome Genome Campus near Cambridge in the UK, and our 600 staff are engineers, technicians, scientists and other professionals from all over the world.
EMBL is an inclusive, equal opportunity employer offering attractive conditions and benefits appropriate to an international research organisation.
We have an informal culture, international working environment and excellent professional development opportunities but one of the really amazing things about us is the concentration of technical and scientific expertise – something you probably won’t find anywhere else.
If you’ve ever visited the campus you’ll have experienced first-hand our friendly, collegial and supportive atmosphere, set in the beautiful Cambridgeshire countryside. Our staff also enjoy excellent sports facilities including a gym, a free shuttle bus, an on-site nursery, cafés and restaurant and a library.
To apply, please submit a CV and a covering letter through our online system that states which position(s) you are interested in and why you believe you would be a good candidate. If you would like to find out more about the project(s) then please approach the relevant group directly.
https://www.embl.de/jobs/searchjobs/index.php?ref=EBI01513
Applications are welcome from all nationalities - visa information will be discussed in more depth with applicants selected for interview.
EMBL-EBI is committed to achieving gender balance and strongly encourages applications from women, who are currently under-represented at all levels. Appointment will be based on merit alone.
This position is limited to the project duration specified.
Applications will close at 23:00 BST on the date listed above.