Postdoc bioinformatic modeling & systems biology of JAK-STAT signaling, leading consortium-wide analyses
A consortium of universities and research institutes in Vienna (Austria) recently received a large grant aimed at making JAK-STAT signaling the most comprehensively characterized signaling pathway. To lead integrative analysis of various high-throughput data types, we are recruiting two bioinformatics postdocs with an interest in systems biology, functional genomics/epigenomics, prote-omics, or pathway modeling.
Our group is part of the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. We com-bine a strong background in computational biology and bioinformatic methods development with a high-throughput laboratory, which allows us to validate computational predictions experimentally. We work closely with physicians at the Vienna General Hospital and the Medical University of Vienna, seeking to translate bioinformatic discoveries into novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.
The Project (
http://www.jak-stat.at/)
The JAK-STAT signaling pathway is central to cellular homeostasis and development, and it controls inflammation, infection and can-cer. The Viennese JAK-STAT community recently attracted funding from the Austrian Science Fund for a Special Research Programme (SFB) on JAK-STAT signaling, chromatin remodeling, and disease. This new project consortium builds upon long-standing collaborations and provides a productive, tightly interconnected network for interdisciplinary investigation of the complexities of mammalian gene regulation. It is hosted by the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (
www.vetmeduni.ac.at; Richard Moriggl, Mathias Müller, Ve-ronika Sexl) and involves CeMM, Austrian Academy of Sciences (
www.cemm.at; Christoph Bock), MFPL, University of Vienna (
www.mfpl.ac.at; Thomas Decker) and the Medical University of Vienna (
www.meduniwien.ac.at; Sylvia Knapp). The consortium will investigate principles that underlie switches in transcription directed by the chromatin landscape and 3D structure, such as those that occur in normal and aberrant development, in the reaction to infection, and in carcinogenesis. Consortium members have expertise in areas as comprising immunity, inflammation, hematopoietic malignancies, pharmacogenomics, epigenetics, bioinformatics, ‘disease-tailored’ mouse models, and genome editing. The consortium’s mission is to pave the way for novel therapeutic possibilities, especially with regard to personalized medicine.
The Candidate(s)
We are looking for highly motivated and academically outstanding candidates who want to advance their scientific career in the field of bioinformatics and computational systems biology. A strong candidate may have a background in the computational sciences (bioin-formatics, statistics, physics, engineering, etc.) and some prior experience with collaborative research in high-throughput biology. In the same way, we are considering applicants with a background in medicine or in biology (e.g., functional genomics, chemical biology, human genetics, molecular medicine, etc.) who have strong quantitative skills and a keen interest in pursuing systems medicine pro-jects. The successful candidates will have the opportunity to pursue bioinformatic methods development and lead consortium-wide analyses at the cutting edge of molecular systems biology. They will be trained by the entire consortium and associated faculty, em-powering them to make major contributions to future of pathway-driven personalized medicine. The available computational re-sources, massive-scale datasets, and bioinformatic mentoring will give them the freedom to explore new approach to computational systems biology. Postdoc salaries will follow the guidelines of the Austrian Science Fund (
https://www.fwf.ac.at/en/research-funding/personnel-costs).
The Principal Investigator (
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9qSsTcIAAAAJ)
Christoph Bock is a principal investigator at CeMM. He is also a guest professor at the Medical University of Vienna’s Department for Laboratory Medicine, scientific coordinator of the Biomedical Sequencing Facility at CeMM, and an adjunct group leader for bioinfor-matics at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics. Christoph Bock obtained his PhD summa cum laude from Saarland University and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in 2008, followed by three years of postdoctoral research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Har-vard, where he contributed to the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics project. He has been a principal investigator of BLUEPRINT (in the Inter-national Human Epigenome Consortium), and he co-initiated and is project leader of Genom Austria, a scientific and educational citizen science project that is the Austrian partner in the International Network of Personal Genome Projects. He has received several major research awards, including the Max Planck Society’s Otto Hahn Medal (2009), a New Frontier Group grant by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2015-2020), an ERC Starting Grant (2016-2021), and the Overton Prize of the International Society of Computational Biology (2017).
The Institute (
http://www.cemm.at/)
CeMM is an international research institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a founding member of EU-LIFE. It has an outstand-ing track record of top-notch science (last five years: >10 papers in Nature/Cell/Science/NEJM, >25 papers in Nature/Cell sister jour-nals) and medical translation. With about hundred researchers, CeMM provides a truly collaborative and personal environment, while maintaining critical mass and all relevant technologies. Research at CeMM focuses on cancer, inflammation, and immune disorders. CeMM is located at the center of one of the largest medical campuses in Europe, within walking distance of Vienna’s historical city center. A study by “The Scientist” placed CeMM among the top-5 best places to work in academia world-wide (
http://the-scientist.com/2012/08/01/best-places-to-work-academia-2012). Vienna is frequently ranked the world’s best city to live. It is a Unit-ed Nations city with a large English-speaking community. The official language at CeMM is English, and more than 40 different nation-alities are represented at the institute.
Please apply online
http://cemm.at/career/open-positions/ with cover letter, CV, academic transcripts, and contact details of three referees. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Any application received by 31 March 2017 will be considered. Start dates are very flexible.
