Researcher/Research Assistant Position in Bioinformatics

The University of Helsinki is the largest university in Finland, hosting an international academic community of 40,000 students, researchers and staff members. University of Helsinki is also the most important provider of research infrastructures in Finland.

Molecular and Integrative Biosciences Research Programme in the University of Helsinki is an interdisciplinary research unit for the studies of the molecular and mechanistic basis of life. We are unifying areas of experimental biosciences, including Biochemistry, Genetics, Structural Biology, Cell and Developmental Biology, Neuroscience and Physiology.

Molecular and Integrative Biosciences Research Programme invites applicants for

RESEARCHER/RESEARCH ASSISTANT POSITION IN BIOINFORMATICS

The project: Brainstem neurons behind mood, memory and motivation. Brainstem nuclei are critically important for regulation of mood, motivation and voluntary movements. Abnormal function of these neurons is involved in neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression, addiction, schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease.

In this project, we combine single cell mRNA sequencing, genetic methods and bioinformatics to understand the brainstem neuronal subtypes and their developmental trajectories.

Funding: The project in funded by the Academy of Finland. The salary is dependent on the qualifications and is based on the University of Helsinki salary scale.

Timing: Project work for 6 months, with possible extension. Starting date in November 2019.

Required qualifications: Applicants at different career stages (undergrad/graduate student/post-doctoral researcher) will be considered. An ideal candidate would be familiar with some of the following tools:
• single-cell RNAseq, RNAseq, ChIPseq or ATACseq data analysis
• principal component analysis
• graph-based clustering, dimensionality reduction methods
• biostatistics
• differential gene expression
• gene set enrichment
• gene network mapping

The application must be submitted as one single pdf file through the University of Helsinki electronic recruitment system by clicking on the link below. Applicants employed by the University of Helsinki must submit their application through the SAP HR portal (https://saphr.it.helsinki.fi/irj/portal). The closing date for applications is 21 October 2019.

Contact for inquiries and applications:
Kaia Achim, Academy fellow (kaia.achim@helsinki.fi)
Juha Partanen, Prof. (Juha.M.Partanen@helsinki.fi)

In case you need technical support with the recruitment system, please contact recruitment(at)helsinki.fi.

References:
Seurat v2.0 (Butler et al., Nature Biotechnology 2018. PMID: 29608179 DOI: 10.1038/nbt.4096)
Unsupervised clustering and discovery of cell types and states (Macosko et al., Cell, 2015 PMCID: PMC4481139 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.05.002)
Developmental trajectory reconstruction (Farrell et al, Science, 2018 PMCID: PMC6247916 DOI: 10.1126/science.aar3131)
Integrative single cell transcriptomics and epigenetics data analysis (Lake et al, Nature Biotech, 2018 PMID: 29227469 DOI: 10.1038/nbt.4038)