Research Assistant - AI Scientist & Computational Cancer Biology

University of Oxford; Oxford; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 42,000; Full time

Job summary

University of Oxford seeks a Research Assistant (AI Scientist & Computational Cancer Biology) to join the Nuffield Department of Medicine, working on an ARIA-funded national initiative.

You will support computational analyses, review scientific discoveries, design experiments, and contribute to developing AI models and robotic lab workflows for personalised cancer vaccines.

Responsibilities

• Provide computational research support with large-scale cancer, genomic and immunological datasets.
• Apply established and emerging AI approaches to cancer vaccine research.
• Develop and evaluate AI models and scientific agents in collaboration with biologists and researchers.

Job description

Research Assistant - AI Scientist & Computational Cancer Biology

We are seeking to appoint a Research Assistant (AI Scientist & Computational Cancer Biology) to join the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, working on an state of the art project funded by Advanced Research & Innovation Agency.

Reporting to Dr Lennard Lee, Programme Director, you will serve as an AI Scientist & Computational Cancer Biology Research Assistant for the UK Cancer Vaccine AI Scientist & Supercomputing Project.

The UK Cancer Vaccine AI Scientist & Supercomputing Project is a government-supported national flagship research initiative hosted by the University of Oxford. The project brings together sovereign AI supercomputing, AI Scientists, automated laboratories, and immunology to develop and manufacture safer, more precise and more effective personalised cancer vaccines.

To accelerate the development of personalised cancer vaccines for NHS patients, we seek to create an AI scientist capable of reviewing scientific discovery, generating hypotheses, designing experiments, controlling laboratory workflows, and analysing results. By integrating advanced machine learning with robotic laboratory automation, experimental findings are rapidly fed back to the AI scientist, enabling increasingly accurate predictions and accelerating the pace at which new scientific discoveries can be translated towards patient benefit.

The project has been recognised as one of the UK’s leading strategic research initiatives, having been referenced within both the Government’s AI for Science Strategy and the 10-Year National Cancer Plan. It is supported by major UK research funders and government organisations, including ARIA, the Medical Research Council, UK Research and Innovation, Cancer Research UK and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, alongside a consortium of more than 2,500 scientists, clinicians, engineers, patient representatives and technology experts. The successful candidate will join a highly collaborative multidisciplinary team working at the interface of artificial intelligence, computational biology, cancer immunology, robotics, software engineering and clinical research, contributing to research that aims to establish new approaches for the discovery and development of personalised cancer vaccines.

You will provide computational research support within the programme, working with large-scale cancer, genomic and immunological datasets and applying established and emerging artificial intelligence approaches to cancer vaccine research. They will use frontier and open-source AI models and agentic coding tools, contribute to the development and evaluation of AI models and scientific agents, and support computational analyses alongside cancer biologists, immunologists and AI researchers. The post holder will manage their own research and administrative activities within agreed guidelines and contribute to project planning, data analysis, research outputs and collaborative research.

This position is offered full time on a fixed term contract until 30 September 2030 and is funded by ARIA.