Senior Bioinformatician, Target identification and validation

Cambridge, UK

Competitive Salary & Benefits

Make a more meaningful impact to patients’ lives around the globe

Here you’ll have the opportunity to make a meaningful difference to patients’ lives. With science at its heart, this is the place where breakthroughs born in the lab become transformative medicines – for the world’s most complex diseases. Answer unmet medical needs by pioneering the next wave of science, focusing on outcomes and shaping the patient ecosystem.

With our ground-breaking pipeline, the outlook is bright. Be proud to be part of a place that has achieved so much, yet is still moving forward. There’s no better time to join our global, growing enterprise as we lead the way for healthcare and society.

Who you are

Are you an experienced bioinformatician looking for an exciting new challenge? Then why not join our Data Sciences & Quantitative Biology team within Discovery Sciences where you will play a key role in computational support for drug target identification and validation.

What You’ll do

This role focuses on the analysis and understanding of data to provide and prioritise hypotheses for drug targets across therapeutic areas e.g. cardiovascular renal and metabolism (CVRM) respiratory & immunology (R&I) and oncology. These data come from a variety of sources, including in house functional genomics screening such as chemical compound, fragment-based screening and CRISPR experiments, or in silico methods such as knowledge-graph inferences and genomics data research. You will work on the development of screening data analysis pipelines, and methods for annotating, triaging and prioritising drug targets using both in house and publicly available data sets. You will join a multi-disciplinary collaborative team of data scientists and researchers in preclinical drug discovery, working closely with other data scientists, lab scientists and biologists to deliver improvements to AstraZeneca’s preclinical target pipeline.

• Collaborating effectively with experimentalists, bioinformaticians and other data scientists to explore and analyse data relating to target identification and validation.
• Prototyping and implementing analytical processes for the management, processing and analysis of proprietary target screening data and publicly available data sets, to derive insights and target hypotheses.
• Contribute to data management within the target identification and validation area.
• Contribute more broadly to our evolving in-silico target identification and validation approaches, via collaborative partnering both within our department and with other data science colleagues in other departments.
• Communicate efficiently and effectively with biologists in translation of technical requirements.
• Work in partnership with other scientists, and take ownership to ensure high quality drug target hypotheses, and scientific excellence and reproducibility in the related tools, processes and results.

Essential Criteria

• First degree in bioinformatics, computer sciences and relevant computational disciplines,  or molecular biology, biochemistry with subsequent training in bioinformatics.
• PhD, or equivalent Postdoc or industrial experience, in bioinformatics or a related computational discipline.
• Experience in biological research concepts, and data and information types  and analytical approaches aimed at deriving insights from them (e.g. pathway enrichment).
• Experience with relevant computational tools such as R, Python and database technologies.
• Strong interdisciplinary communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively in global and/or multi-disciplinary teams.

Desirable Criteria

• Knowledge and experiences of biological assays, molecular drug target assessment and CRISPR technology.
• Knowledge and experience in phenotypic screening with chemical compounds, functional fragments and arrayed/pooled CRISPR methods.
• Knowledge and experience in biochemistry and molecular biology.
• Experience in analysis of genomics, proteomics and other -omics data.
• Experience in exploration, extraction, integration and analysis of data and information from publicly available databases (e.g. Pharos, Open Targets).

Pioneer a new future to meet global healthcare challenges

At AstraZeneca we’re dedicated to being a Great Place to Work. Where you are empowered to push the boundaries of science and unleash your entrepreneurial spirit. There’s no better place to make a difference to medicine, patients and society. An inclusive culture that champions diversity and collaboration. Always committed to lifelong learning, growth and development.

So, what’s next?

Please complete your application before the below closing date.

This role is open from 10 August 2021  and we welcome your application no later than 24 August 2021.

Where can I find out more?

• Follow AstraZeneca on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/1603/
• Follow AstraZeneca on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/astrazenecacareers/
• Follow AstraZeneca on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/astrazeneca_careers/?hl=en

Date Posted

Closing Date

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity.  We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills.  We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.  We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics.  We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.