cfDNA Genomics Fellow: Statistical Methods & AI

Wellcome Sanger Institute; New Alresford; Hybrid; GBP 39,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

Wellcome Sanger Institute—Martin group—is seeking a Postdoctoral Fellow or Senior Postdoctoral Fellow to develop statistical and ML methods for cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from pregnant women and people. You will work on calling fetal/maternal genotypes and detecting fetal components in maternal plasma, with opportunities to collaborate internationally on pregnancy complications and multi-omics studies.

The role emphasizes robust software development, reproducible workflows, and leadership for the

Qualifications

• PhD in statistics, statistical genetics, genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, machine learning or similar.
• Strong background in statistics or statistical genetics, including development and benchmarking of new methods.
• Experience with raw sequence data (alignments, variant calling, QC).
• Experience analysing large-scale human genetic/genomic data.
• Proficiency in Python and/or R, and Unix/Linux.
• Experience or interest in using AI tools to boost productivity in research and software development.
• Knowledge of statistical methods for large-scale genetic research.
• Experience writing reproducible code with GitHub, Snakemake/Nextflow, RMarkdown or similar.
• Experience developing pipelines for large-scale genomic analyses, including HPC/cloud workflows.
• Creativity, collaboration, attention to detail, and independent work.

Responsibilities

• Develop new statistical and deep learning methods for calling fetal and maternal genotypes from cfDNA data.
• Apply methods to pregnancy complications in large cohorts and collaborate with international groups.

Skills

PhD in statistics/genetics

Statistics or statistical genetics

Python/R

Unix/Linux

AI tools in research

Genetic data analysis

Reproducible code (GitHub/Snakemake/Do

HPC/Cloud workflows

Communication skills

Education

PhD in statistics/genetics/genomics

Tools

GitHub

Snakemake/Nextflow

RMarkdown

Job description

Wellcome Sanger Institute—Martin group—is seeking a Postdoctoral Fellow or Senior Postdoctoral Fellow to develop statistical and ML methods for cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from pregnant women and people. You will work on calling fetal/maternal genotypes and detecting fetal components in maternal plasma, with opportunities to collaborate internationally on pregnancy complications and multi-omics studies.

The role emphasizes robust software development, reproducible workflows, and leadership for the