The Chikina lab at the Department of Computational and Systems Biology at the University of Pittsburgh has multiple open postdoctoral positions. Our group works on computational methods development for diverse biomedical applications. We collaborate with a number of wet-lab/clinical groups providing access to unique datasets. Potential projects include:
-Phylogenetic methods for identifying genomic regions driving convergent phenotypes.
-Using deep learning to understand evolution of non-coding sequences
-Latent variable representations for large genomic datasets. (see our preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/03/11/116061)
-Predicting response to immunotherapy and other clinical outcomes from diverse genomics data including single-cell RNAseq. This project is being conducted in collaboration with clinicians at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center.
-Integrative analysis of exercise genomics as part the MoTrPAC consortium www.motrpac.org/
Requirements:
-PhD in Computational Biology, Mathematics, Computer Science, Statistics or a related technical discipline.
-Excellent programming ability
-Experience working with data
-Knowledge of biology is preferred but not required
Our environment:
Our department has excellent computational resources and a close relationship with the department of Computational Biology in the school of Computer Science at CMU through our joint graduate program and seminars. The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is ranked #5 in NIH funding.
Pittsburgh is a vibrant but still affordable city which is undergoing a major renaissance with a younger-shifting demographic driven by biomedical and tech ventures (Google, Uber, Amazon, and Facebook all have offices here). You can read more about life in Pittsburgh here:
www.nytimes.com/2017/07/22/style/pittsburgh-tech-makeover.html
www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/dining/pittsburgh-restaurants.html