Postdoctoral Fellow - Human Genome Analysis

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Salary £31,115 to £39,004 plus excellent benefits.

Fixed term for 3 years.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and skilled Postdoctoral Fellow in Human Genome Analysis to join the Soranzo team at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (http://www.sanger.ac.uk/research/faculty/nsoranzo/). The post will suit an ambitious and talented individual who is interested in applying his/her skills at the interface of human disease and regulatory genomics.

The Soranzo team at the Sanger Institute studies genomic predisposition to cardiometabolic risk. In the last ten years, we have led international efforts to discover genetic variants associated with both established and emerging risk factors in cardiovascular disease, diabetes and immunity. Distinguishing features of our research are the focus on large-scale science, the use of genome sequencing for genomic exploration, and a focus on high-dimensional ('omic') phenotypes, including metabolomics and gene expression phenotypes.

As part of a Sanger-led initiative in Precision Medicine, we are performing whole-genome sequencing on thousands of individuals from the INTERVAL Study, an extensively phenotyped UK-wide Bioresource (see http://www.intervalstudy.org.uk for further information). The successful candidate will be primarily responsible for computational analyses of whole-genome sequencing datasets, with the aim to characterise different classes of sequence variants, including: (i) single-nucleotide variants/small insertion/deletion polymorphisms; (ii) structural and copy number variation; (iii) telomere length; (iv) mitochondrial DNA variation. Depending on skills and interest, there will be opportunities to develop research projects focusing on different applications of the data, including but not limited to population genetics, genome graphs, genotype imputation, or genotype-phenotype association studies. The appointed researcher will be embedded in an interdisciplinary team of computational scientists, bioinformaticians, statisticians and wet lab scientists. The results will inform efforts to characterise the properties and function of rare and low-frequency sequence variation affecting human complex phenotype.

The project will also involve collaboration with the Metabolic Disease Group at the Sanger Institute (Dr Ines Barroso), and the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit (CEU), Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge (Professor John Danesh and Dr Adam Butterworth).

Essential Skills

- Postgraduate degree in a quantitative science, including but not limited to physics, statistics, mathematics or computational biology.

- Firm grounding in statistical and computational methods for genome analysis.

- Experience in working with whole-genome sequence data.

- Grounding in methods for calling different classes of sequence variation.

- Programming skills in Perl, Python, C, C++ or equivalent languages.

- Excellent communication, organisational and problem-solving skills.

- High level report writing.

- Ability to work independently and as part of a team.

- Ability to work to tight timelines.

- Ability to communicate efficiently with a diverse array of scientific expertise.

- Enthusiasm, commitment and attention to detail.

- Experience in working with the statistical programming language R.

Ideal Skills

- Documented previous statistics experience working with large-scale genetic datasets in relation to complex human phenotype.

- Strong interest in human disease and or population genetics.

- Documented scientific writing skills.

Please include a covering letter and CV with your application.

Closing date for applications: 24th August 2017; however applications will be considered and reviewed on an on-going basis and therefore the post may be filled before the deadline.