postdoctoral research position in AstraZeneca - AI and computational biology
Etai Jacob
Dear All,
A great opportunity to join the AI group in Early Oncology at AstraZeneca. Flexible location: Boston US or Cambridge UK. Competitive salary. Postdoc mentoring will be done jointly with an academic supervisor based on candidate preferences (UK or US).
More details:
Recent advances in AI and representation of biological data offer huge promise, harnessing prior knowledge and constraints within a machine learning framework to derive smarter and more interpretable predictions. Importantly, initiatives like DepMap and the GDSC (Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer) are releasing 10,000’s of results detailing cancer cell line dependency to CRISPR knockout and combinations of drugs. AstraZeneca is complimenting this with 1000’s of results from custom screens and novel endpoints, including partnership with Cancer Research UK to build a Functional Genomics Centre. These cell lines are deeply and dynamically characterised for multiple omics. Sophisticated analytical techniques might fully harness the high dimensionality of this data and translate it into clinical practice.
AstraZeneca’s data assets include preclinical and clinical trials, electronic records, and real world evidence data, in addition to publicly available data. This presents an outstanding opportunity to apply data from discovery and translational medicine, and utilize our advanced data science tools to accelerate our research!
Goals:
•Work alongside technical and domain experts, including drug project teams and the growing Data Science and AI community across AZ and leading academic institutes.
•Derive representations of knowledge analytics, genomics, phenotypic and clinical data.
•Employ machine learning techniques to reveal unique patterns and meaningful insights that impact research and clinical practices.
•Publish cutting edge research, code and scientific discoveries in high-impact journals, meetings and repositories.
Qualifications, Skills & Experience
Required:
•A recent PhD in a quantitative subject area (e.g. Computer Science, Data Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics, Computational Biology or similar) or biological sciences with a relevant quantitative component.
•Experience in performing research using statistics, exploratory data analysis or machine learning
•Proficient in programming (Python and/or R)
•Confident leading independent research from hypothesis formulation to implementation and communicating results.
•Excellent communication skills
•Good publication record
Preferred:
•Exposure to pre-clinical or clinical biological data e.g., functional genomics
•Contribution to the research community through re-useable code and publication
•Experience applying Machine/deep learning to biological/health data (e.g., genomics)
•Experience in utilizing Bayesian statistics or causal reasoning
About our Postdoc Programme:
Our Postdoc Programme is for self-motivated individuals looking to take on exciting, high impact projects in a collaborative, challenging environment.
Working with peers and experts from a diverse group of backgrounds, together with a world class academic mentor aligned specifically to your project, you’ll be empowered and supported to drive the success of your project, publish papers, and achieve your goals! Networking within your field and the scientific community you'll build close connections and gain exposure for your publications.
You’ll also benefit from our comprehensive Postdoc Programme training.
Initial Postdoc Programme job offers are on a 2 year, Fixed Term Contract basis, with a 1 year, merit-based contract extension.
Advert Opens: 3rd August, 2021
Advert Closes: 1st September, 22021
Etai Jacob