Computational oncology postdoctoral fellows – MSK Biomarker Development Program

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) is one of the world’s premier cancer centers, committed to exceptional patient care, leading-edge research, and superb educational programs. The blending of research with patient care is at the heart of everything we do. The institution is a comprehensive cancer center whose purposes are the treatment and control of cancer, the advancement of biomedical knowledge through laboratory and clinical research, and the training of scientists, physicians and other health care workers.

We are currently looking for two highly motivated postdoctoral fellows to join  the liquid biopsy and cancer genomics programs (led by Dr Pedram Razavi) within the MSK Biomarker Development Program (BDP).  The MSK BDP is a dedicated program focused on development and utilization of tumor tissue and circulating biomarkers to enable precision oncology and inform therapeutic decisions.

Research in the Razavi group focuses on integration of large-scale tissue and circulating genomics with clinicopathologic data to study tumor evolution under therapeutic pressure in breast cancer, discover novel biomarkers of response or resistance to therapies in breast cancer and develop tools for early detection  and prediction of outcomes in breast cancer.

Fellows will join a multidisciplinary group of bioinformaticians, translational medical oncologists, molecular biologists, pathologists and clinical researchers focusing on two main studies: 1)  analysis of the largest effort to date in breast cancer focusing on comprehensive genomic profiling of paired pre- and post-treatment tumor tissue to decipher the mechanisms of resistance to adjuvant therapies in breast cancer and develop prediction models of outcomes in breast cancer; and 2) development of  novel approaches for the analysis of cell free DNA (cfDNA) to assess cfDNA utility in a wide array of practical clinical applications such tumor genomic profiling, monitoring disease evolution and heterogeneity, discovery of novel mechanisms of therapy resistance, detection of minimal residual and micrometastatic disease, and early- detection of disease. Fellows will apply analytic methods on a combination of newly generated and big data to address high clinical impact questions to advance the ability to treat cancer patients. There will be several opportunities for co-mentorship by collaborators across departments and services at MSK.

(https://www.mskcc.org/research-programs/biomarker-development).

The ideal candidate should have:

• A PhD in a quantitative discipline, including but not limited to computational biology, computer science, machine learning, or applied mathematics.
• Experience in massively parallel sequencing data analysis, and understanding of genetics and genomics, including epigenomics, transcriptomics, disease genomics and statistical genetics.
• Strong background in machine learning/AI, algorithm development and mathematical modeling applied to the biomedical research field. Knowledge of ctDNA analysis is an asset but not required.
• Demonstrated experience with several programming languages: R, Python, Java, Unix
• Excellent communication skills, and ability to work independently and as part of a team.

Responsibilities:

We are seeking candidates to develop computational methods and applied translational data analysis in cancer biology and clinical care. Some of the key responsibilities are:

• Analysis of high-throughput sequencing data of tumors in the contexts of drug response, modeling clonal evolution and the tumor microenvironment.
• Multimodal data integration of clinical data with advanced molecular approaches such as genomics, spatial transcriptomics, proteomics, radiological and histological imagining.
• Cancer genomics including germline and somatic genetics, mutational processes, and genomic instability.
• Longitudinal analysis of timeseries data from cfDNA sequencing.

If you have any questions about this job opportunity, please contact:

Kaylie Johnson

Program administrator for the BDP

johnsk12@mskcc.org   

Salary: $55,439-$64,507

MSK is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer committed to diversity and inclusion in all aspects of recruiting and employment. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration without regard to race, color, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability, veteran status or any other factor which cannot lawfully be used as a basis for an employment decision.   

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