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Opportunity: Senior Scientist, Bioinformatics @ UT Southwestern Medical Center -- Dallas, TX (US)
Submitted by Steve Rozario; posted on Tuesday, August 24, 2021
BACKGROUND
Eisai has been dedicated for decades to the pursuit of novel therapeutics to improve the lives of people suffering from dementia and their families. Recognizing the potential for human genetics, data sciences and precision chemistry to disrupt the drug discovery paradigm, Eisai launched the Eisai Center for Genetics Guided Dementia Discovery (G2D2) in 2019 to accelerate the discovery of innovative therapeutics. G2D2 is a unique drug discovery organization driven by a diverse group of passionate, dedicated and collaborative scientists committed to one goal: delivering breakthroughs for patients and their families. All Eisai employees, as part of the company's human health care (hhc) mission, spend at least 1% of their working time with patients and families to ensure that the innovation we drive is based on an understanding of their real needs.
The predominant research focus at G2D2, driven by insights from human genetics, is immunodementia: targeting immune-related targets for dementia. At G2D2, we focus not only on how human genetics and other human biology data may identify and validate therapeutic targets with increased likelihood of success in clinical trials, but also how this data guides selection of the best approaches to design new therapeutics and the selection of strategies to deliver these therapeutics to the right patient at the right time. Recognizing the obvious alignment between human genetics and nucleic acid modalities, our precision chemistry strategy is to directly validate human biology hypotheses by utilizing our unique RNA targeting therapeutic platform. G2D2's expertise in harnessing molecular complexity (stereochemistry and topology) to successfully discover and develop natural product based therapeutics has been applied to create an evolving unique nucleic acid immunotherapeutic platform that is being employed globally in multiple clinical and pre-clinical programs at Eisai.
G2D2's cutting-edge 50,000-square-foot facility is strategically located in Cambridge, MA, to accelerate collaborations with leading research institutes in this world-class biotech hub. Our facility has been designed around an open-lab concept, enabling scientists with multi-disciplinary backgrounds to work together in a single integrated lab space. Our labs include state-of-the-art capabilities that support the variety of disciplines located at the site, including medicinal and process chemistry, in-vitro and in-vivo biology, microscopy, DMPK, drug safety, chemical and structural biology, automation and screening, and more. G2D2 is home to Eisai's global capabilities in neurology discovery data science. G2D2 is also home to other global Eisai functions, including global health, DMPK, Safety, IP, oncology, thus providing a rich environment for cross-functional interaction. Our office is designed to foster an atmosphere of mission-driven and collaborative science, using new collaboration tools and technologies, and is being optimized to support a hybrid work environment.
At Eisai, we highly value both internal and external collaboration and pursue flexible research models with a range of external scientific partners to accelerate delivery of innovative medicines. To this end, the G2D2 facility includes the Eisai Innovation Center Biolabs, which provides space and infrastructure to start-up/spin-out companies conducting high-risk but potentially transformative research that can impact the discovery of breakthrough neuroscience therapeutics.
More information about G2D2 is provided here: (http://eisai.mediaroom.com/2018-06-12-Eisai-Inc-to-Launch-Center-for-Genetics-Guided-Dementia-Discovery-in-Cambridge-Massachusetts) and here (https://us.eisai.com/research/g2d2), and about Eisai's Neurology strategy and pipeline are provided here (https://www.eisai.com/index.html). The candidate will be responsible for leveraging computational methods to advance drug discovery from target identification through clinical strategy design. While the focus will be on utilizing predictive modelling to support neurology-related translational science, the candidate will also be providing general bioinformatics expertise to help directly guide therapeutic research across a variety of programs and platforms.
The bioinformatician will join an existing (and evolving) global data science group at Eisai and will encounter a corporate culture that is very motivated to apply computational biology and other data-driven approaches to R&D at every level of the organization. Given the expanding scope of the group's operations, the successful candidate will have the opportunity to help shape the direction and focus of our bioinformatics team as we position to best support our neurology business group.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Essential Functions:
- Design, implement, and apply statistical, network, and machine learning techniques to analyze and integrate large, complex datasets (e.g., RNA-seq, scRNAseq, proteomics).
- Maintain a keen awareness of recent developments in data science and machine learning applied to drug discovery and influence the introduction of novel computational techniques.
- Understand the usage of different statistical modelling approaches, their biases, how and when to apply them, decide which method/s to use for a particular analysis and data set.
- Apply predictive modeling (including AI/ML) to leverage single cell approaches.
- Translate in vitro/vivo findings to bolster our understanding of human disease pathology, patient quality of life, and potential disease subtypes leading to patient stratification.
- Clearly communicate key findings through interactive data visualizations and presentations.
- Work cross-functionally among R&D teams, workstreams, and programs to provide statistical support and bioinformatics expertise across the neurology portfolio.
- Work independently and as part of a team, with a willingness to learn new or unfamiliar types of analysis approaches as needed.
- Mentor/coach team members and peers in technical and scientific aspects.
REQUIREMENTS
- PhD with 5-7 years of industry or relevant experience, or MS with 8-10 years of relevant experience with strong expertise in data science and machine learning required.
- Knowledge of programming languages, i.e. Python and R, and Unix / high-performance computing environment, including software development practices such as version control
- Experience with distributed computing, database (e.g., SQL) or relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL), and Amazon Web Services is preferred.
- Experience analyzing publicly available as well as internally generated transcriptomic (bulk RNA-seq, scRNA-seq) and proteomic data for drug discovery and development processes
- Statistical knowledge of probability distributions, sampling techniques, causal inference and other statistical concepts
- Proven experience with Deep Learning, Neural Networks and their application. Familiarity with some deep learning libraries such as Keras, TensorFlow, and PyTorch is a plus.
- Experience with drug discovery in neurology and/or immunology is preferred.
- Strong communications skills, including data visualization experience (RShiny, Spotfire, Tableau)
- Eager to work collaboratively in a team and to both give and receive feedback to support professional development for self and others
- The ability to thrive in a flexible, goal-oriented environment is required.
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