Biocurator

We are currently seeking a talented Biocurator to join the Human Genomics Team at the EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). The team provides genome variation and regulation resources as part of the Ensembl project, human variation interpretation services including the DECIPHER platform, and data portals for partners around the world. With underlying infrastructure for these services based on EMBL’s large and long-standing data resources – this is an opportunity to rise to the challenges of ‘big data’ and make contributions that advance the reach and utility of sequence data.

Your role
This is an exciting opportunity to make a significant contribution to the development of a new open-source Perturbation Catalogue for harmonised and curated human gene (e.g. CRISPR), variant (e.g. MAVE), and expression (e.g. Perturb-seq) data. This project is funded through the Open Targets consortium, an innovative public-private partnership that uses human genetics and genomics data for systematic drug target identification and prioritisation.

The new resource will help to address a fundamental need in the scientific and drug discovery community for a comprehensive resource to understand the impact of modifying genes and proteins. You will be responsible for development and implementation of data standards, ontologies, and manual and automated curation protocols for the harmonisation and standardisation of a wealth of perturbation data, helping to address this fundamental need in the scientific community.

This will enable the extension and application of existing algorithms and the design of new computational methods for functional genetics and target identification and prioritisation, offering enhanced statistical power and the capability to work with disease subtypes at a finer granularity. The Perturbation Catalogue will deliver rich community standards, open-source harmonisation and meta-analysis software, gold standard machine learning ready datasets, and a highly customisable public cloud platform with distributed data warehousing technology for cross metadata queries.

You will interact closely with the EMBL-EBI team’s Full-stack Developer/Data Engineer for the development of the perturbation data portal, as well as the wider Human Genomics team. You also will work collaboratively within the Open Targets Perturbation Catalogue project team, alongside scientists and bioinformaticians from EMBL-EBI, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Human Technopole and industry partners (GSK, Pfizer, Genentech, Sanofi, MSD) to gain their respective expertise and use cases, as well as the wider Biocuration community.

You have:

- The ability to apply scientific knowledge in the understanding of scientific research articles and data records
- Experience of biological/clinical data curation
- Experience of working with biological databases
- Experience of working in a UNIX/Linux environment, basic scripting skills (Python)
- Willingness to learn new skills as the project requires
- Self-motivated and capable of working both independently and as part of a team
- Excellent communication, interpersonal and English language skills

Grading:

- To qualify for a grade 6 salary we require a minimum of PhD qualification and at least 3 years of relevant curation experience
- To qualify for a grade 5 salary we require a minimum of PhD qualification
- To qualify for a grade 4 salary we require a primary degree and or masters

You might also have:

- Experience in reviewing and summarising scientific literature
- Experience in application of automation, text-mining and/or machine-learning to biocuration
- Experience of biological/clinical data curation
- Experience of working with ontologies or controlled vocabularies

Apply now! Benefits and Contract Information
- Financial incentives: depending on circumstances, monthly family/marriage allowance of £260, monthly child allowance of £314 per child. Non resident allowance up to £532 per month. Annual salary review, pension scheme, death benefit, long-term care, accident-at-work and unemployment insurances
- Hybrid working arrangements
- Private medical insurance for you and your immediate family (including all prescriptions and generous dental & optical cover)
- Generous time off: 30 days annual leave per year, in addition to eight bank holidays
- Relocation package including installation grant (as applicable)
- Campus life: Free shuttle bus to and from work, on-site library, subsidised on-site gym and cafeteria, casual dress code, extensive sports and social club activities (on campus and remotely)
- Family benefits: On-site nursery, child sick leave, generous parental leave, holiday clubs on campus and monthly family and child allowances
- Contract duration: This position is a 3 year project based contract
- Salary: UK Equivalent £44,671.00 (Total package will be dependent on family circumstances)
- International applicants: We recruit internationally and successful candidates are offered visa exemptions. Read more on our page for international applicants.
- Diversity and inclusion: At EMBL-EBI, we strongly believe that inclusive and diverse teams benefit from higher levels of innovation and creative thought. We encourage applications from women, LGBTQ+ and individuals from all nationalities.
- Job location: This role is based in Hinxton, near Cambridge, UK. You will be required to relocate if you are based overseas and you will receive a generous relocation package to support you.