Research Informatician - Alzheimer’s Research UK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute

We are seeking to appoint a Research Informatician to join the Alzheimer’s Research UK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute.

You will be responsible for the development and maintenance of target lists for specific disease areas or methodological developments. You will be responsible for the development and maintenance of workflows for identifying the most promising targets and markers from disease pathways, in order to accelerate the development novel reagents and know-how to catalyse drug discovery and translation. You believe in the power of data science to create a paradigm shift in the way we understand disease and select the next generation of therapeutic targets and markers. You will work with disease area experts to prioritise targets within the lists with respect to novelty, tractability, disease genetics, patient-derived and model-derived data. You will be responsible for the training of DDA staff in how to access and best use publicly available interfaces to extract individual pieces of validation data. You will also work closely with senior scientists at the CMD and DDIs to maintain the content and annotation of the target CVs for key targets in the DDI portfolios.

It is essential that you hold a PhD in a biological or bioinformatics subject together with the ability to understand key aspects of new Biology rapidly and capture and communicate and to rapidly learn new skills and problem-solve. You will be an expert research informatician and data wrangler with previous expertise in the breadth of data types and sources underpinning the identification of therapeutic targets and markers. You will use this, whilst working with colleagues from a wide range of disciplines, for the neurodegenerative diseases causing Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, motor neuron disease or Tauopathies. You have expertise in computational methodologies applied to the integration of data of large ‘omic data sets.

This post is one of three research informaticians who will each be embedded at one of the three host Universities but who will form an integrated informatics team. The post is hosted at University of Oxford. However, a flexible working arrangement is expected to facilitate on-site work at Open Targets at the Hinxton Campus south of Cambridge and at the Cambridge and UCL DDIs. Please refer to the job descriptions for the bias in skills sought for the different posts.

Applications for this vacancy are to be made online and you will be required to upload a supporting statement and CV as part of your online application. Your supporting statement must explain how you meet each of the selection criteria for the post using examples of your skills and experience.

This position is offered full time on a fixed term contract until 31 October 2025 and is funded by the ARUK funds.

Only applications received before 12 midday on Thursday 24 August 2023 will be considered. Please quote 164838 on all correspondence.