Research Fellow - Bioinformatics and Data Sciences

Institute for Modern; Guildford; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

The University of Surrey in Guildford offers a postdoctoral fellowship in health data-sciences and biomedical informatics as part of the Veterinary Health Innovation Engine (vHive) and the Health and Biomedical Informatics Group. The role emphasizes applying informatics, data science, ML and AI to advance animal health and welfare.

You will work in multidisciplinary teams, develop computational methods, perform biomarker analyses, and collaborate with Zoetis and partners across the UK and

Qualifications

• PhD required in health, medical or bio-informatics, epidemiology, data sciences, or related field.
• Excellent statistical and analytical skills are required.
• Strong quantitative research experience with real-world datasets.
• Experience applying informatics pipelines to health/biomedical data.
• Proficiency in R and Python is advantageous.
• Strong communication skills for academic and industry stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Plan, design and execute analyses on varied health data projects.
• Apply informatics pipelines and data-science methods to derive insights.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams including industry partners and other universities.
• Model drug repurposing/discovery and biomarker analysis in silico.
• Interpret and communicate results to academic and non-academic audiences.

Skills

Quantitative research

R

Python

Informatics pipelines

Statistical analysis

Communication

Education

PhD in health/biomed informatics/epidemiology/data science

Tools

R

Python

Bioinformatic tools

Job description

The University of Surrey is a global community of ideas and people, dedicated to life-changing education and research.

We are ambitious and have a bold vision of what we want to achieve - shaping ourselves into one of the best universities in the world, which we are achieving through the talents and endeavour of every employee.

Our culture empowers people to achieve this aim and to collectively, and individually, make a real difference.

The role

This is an exciting new opportunity for an enthusiastic and motivated postdoctoral fellow in health data-sciences and biomedical informatics to join the Veterinary Health Innovation Engine (vHive) and the University of Surrey’s Health and Biomedical Informatics Group.

The overall objective for the postholder is to work within these multidisciplinary teams to apply and repurpose techniques in informatics, data sciences, machine learning and AI, to develop new insights and approaches to improve animal health and welfare. This will include assuming responsibilities for informatics- and computational-led data analysis to identify new opportunities via market analysis, drug repurposing/discovery, formal knowledge representation, and precision medicine-led biomarker discovery to complement new therapeutic veterinary medicine approaches.

This work is contextualised into a programme award from our sponsors Zoetis (the largest animal health corporation globally) that seeks to support their interests in key disease issues. The post will thus involve collaborative working with industry partners, charities, as well as other universities and research institutes across the UK and internationally. The job holder will develop, repurpose and use new research techniques and methods, in consultation with the research supervisor and with input from Zoetis employees. These studies will include assessing interview and stakeholder data for unmet need definition, in-silico drug repurposing and trial research, critical evaluation and interpretation of biomarker discovery datasets (and in particular proteomics and transcriptomics), plus extensive library research.

The overall programme of research will be jointly developed by Prof. Nophar Geifman and the person appointed. There are opportunities to broaden out into other areas such as new algorithm development, and advanced computational methodologies for integrated analyses.

About you

You will have a key role in planning, designing and executing a range of analyses on varied novel projects aimed at high-impact and theoretically valuable research questions. Strong quantitative research skills with hands-on real-world experience are essential. You must have experience in the application of informatics pipelines to health and biomedical data (outside educational settings). You will need good communication skills, and able to work with and disseminate information to both academic and non-academic audiences. You will have a PhD in health, medical or bio-informatics, epidemiology, data sciences, or a related subject, ideally with a focus on utilising large-scale health/biomedical data and the application of advanced data analysis methods such as machine-learning. Equivalent research or industry experience will also be considered. Excellent statistical and analytical skills are necessary, as are programming skills, ideally with the ability to work in R and experience with bioinformatic tools/software. Coding in other languages such as python, is an advantage.