BACKGROUND

Applications are invited for a post-doctoral research associate to join the group of Dr Andreas Bender (http://www.ch.cam.ac.uk/group/bender/index) at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Cambridge. The project will utilize both bioinformatics (RNA-Seq) as well as cheminformatics (in silico target prediction) approaches to perform "mode-of-action" and additional analyses of herbal extracts. The project is funded by and will be performed in collaboration with an industrial partner, Aboca Spa Societ Agricola (http://www.aboca.com/en), who will also perform experimental studies suggested or further substantiated by the hypotheses generated computationally.

The research associate will be based at the Unilever Centre for Molecular Informatics (http://www-ucc.ch.cam.ac.uk) in the Department of Chemistry, which is home to about 40 scientists in the cheminformatics and bioinformatics field. The project will be well-embedded into the current expertise available at the centre, and regular travel to the sponsor (in Tuscany, Italy) for the purpose of knowledge transfer will be required.

REQUIREMENTS

Applicants should have (or be about to obtain) a relevant PhD in the fields of bioinformatics, cheminformatics, scientific data analysis or related fields. Expertise in the areas of scientific programming, databases, and data mining packages (such as R) is essential for the post, as is a scientific understanding of chemical and biological information. Previous experience in the analysis of RNA-Seq, ChIP-Seq, Molecular Docking data and the usage of workflow tools (such as Bioconductor, GenePattern, Taverna, KNIME, GALAXY, etc.) would be highly advantageous, as would be knowledge about natural products and mode-of-action elucidation.

TERMS

Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 3 years in the first instance.

This position is available immediately and the final date when applications are accepted will be 2 July 2014.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply online for this vacancy, please click on the 'Apply' button at the following website: http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/4047/. This will route you to the University's Web Recruitment System, where you will need to register an account (if you have not already) and log in before completing the online application form.

Please ensure that you upload your Curriculum Vitae (CV), a covering letter and publications list in the Upload section of the online application. If you upload any additional documents that have not been requested, we will not be able to consider these as part of your application.

For informal enquiries, please contact Dr Andreas Bender (email: ab454 [at] cam.ac.uk).

For queries relating to your application or the application process, please contact Susan Begg (email: smb28 [at] cam.ac.uk).

Please quote reference MA03457 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

The Department holds an Athena SWAN bronze award for women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine.

POLICY

The University values diversity and is committed to equality of opportunity.

The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.