RESPONSIBILITIES

The Center for Biomolecular Science & Engineering (CBSE) at UC Santa Cruz invites applications from outstanding scientists for the position of Assistant Research Scientist in Comparative Genomics. We seek a self-motivated, creative scientist experienced in biological data analysis and having extensive programming knowledge to maintain an independent research program serving as principal investigator on federal grant awards and contracts and on privately-funded projects in the areas of molecular evolution, human variation, cancer genomics, and immunogenomics.

The incumbent will be expected to publish in top-tier scientific journals and present findings in scientific meetings. In the course of research, the incumbent will create algorithms, applications programming interfaces, and software systems used for comparative genomics by both the UCSC group and external groups. It is expected that the incumbent, as part of the UCSC comparative genomics group, will work with research groups at other institutions to set standards in the field. Our exceptional collegiality and interdisciplinary collaborations make UCSC an excellent environment for an innovative scientist who can benefit from and contribute to the rapid growth in the sciences and engineering at UCSC.

Specific projects in which the candidate may play a significant role include the following, all of which have a substantial comparative genomics component: the Genome 10K project, an effort to sequence a reference genome for each of 10,000 vertebrate species to understand how complex animal life evolved through changes in DNA and use this knowledge to become better stewards of the planet; the UCSC reference human genome project, associated with the UCSC Genome Browser, to map the world's biomedical data to a common reference human genome, unleashing the power of the Internet for biomedical research; the UCSC cancer genomics project, a collaborative effort with The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), which is the National Cancer Institute's flagship cancer genomics project, a Stand Up to Cancer Dream Team involved in finding targeted therapies for breast cancer subtypes, the International Cancer Genome Consortium, and other groups to completely map the genetic changes that occur in different cancers; and the UCSC immunogenomics project, a new effort to map human genetic variation in the MHC region and other regions of the human genome that are important in immunology, including T-cell receptor sequences and B-cell antibody sequences associated with immune response.

The ideal candidate would lead a team building fundamental comparative genomics infrastructure that is applied in all four areas and have experience collaborating with national and international scientific research consortia. In addition, candidates with current knowledge of the fields of cancer genomics, epigenomics, and immunogenomics; experience developing efficient methods for multiple-genome alignment; experience mapping, assembling, aligning, and analyzing large-scale next-generation sequencing data are highly desired.

REQUIREMENTS

Ph.D. in bioinformatics, computational biology, genomics, or a related discipline with at least 2 years relevant postdoctoral research experience; experience designing algorithms and developing software tools or computational resources for genomics research; experience working in and coding for a UNIX or Linux environment with large clusters, large databases, and large code bases; record of scientific publication in the area of comparative genomics in peer-reviewed research journals and at major scientific meetings; fluency with mathematical theories in genetics and comparative genomics and with current bioinformatic methods and research. The successful candidate will be highly articulate and have demonstrated ability to lead software engineers and students in developing novel computational tools or resources.

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