Bioinformatician
Uppsala University, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology
Uppsala University is a comprehensive research-intensive university with a strong international standing. Our ultimate goal is to conduct education and research of the highest quality and relevance to make a long-term difference in society. Our most important assets are all the individuals whose curiosity and dedication make Uppsala University one of Sweden’s most exciting workplaces. Uppsala University has over 54,000 students, more than 7,500 employees and a turnover of around SEK 8 billion.
The Department of Cell and Molecular Biology is organized into seven research programmes which all focus on different areas of cell and molecular biology: Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Microbiology and Immunology, Molecular Biology, Molecular Biophysics, Molecular Evolution, Molecular Systems Biology and Structural Biology. The scientific basis of what we do lies in biology, but our research overlaps with other areas such as medicine, computer science, mathematics, chemistry, engineering sciences and physics. In total, we are over 200 staff and ~60 Ph.D. students. Please read more about the department’s work here.
You will be employed by ICM and participate in projects led by the Data Centre at Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab).
SciLifeLab is a national centre for molecular biosciences focusing on health and environmental research. The centre combines leading expertise with advanced knowledge in translational medicine and molecular biosciences. The goal of SciLifeLab also includes building a strong research community around itself through education and collaboration. SciLifeLab is a national resource run by Karolinska Institutet (KI), Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH), Stockholm University and Uppsala University. SciLifeLab was founded in 2010 and currently has 570 employees at the various facilities and about 250 research groups.
SciLifeLab is also hosting a national COVID-19 research programme and a new large research programme for Data-Driven Life Sciences (DDLS), with eleven partner organisations.
Within the DDLS programme, SciLifeLab is now establishing Data Science Nodes with permanent staff members having leading expertise in for example AI, bioinformatics, systems development, data engineering, and data stewardship. The Data Science Nodes will be located in connection to strong local research environments at leading Swedish universities, but at the same time be very tightly integrated in the national DDLS programme. All technical staff will be working under the umbrella of the SciLifeLab Bioinformatics Platform (NBIS; https://nbis.se) or the SciLifeLab Data Centre, both of which since many years have well established frameworks to ensure stimulating working environments, well-functioning team management, and individual professional development opportunities.
All DDLS Data Science Nodes will primarily focus on one of the four strategic research areas within the programme (cell and molecular biology, precision medicine and diagnostics, evolution and biodiversity, epidemiology and infection biology), but will interact within as well as across the areas. The current position is for the Data Science Node in Evolution and Biodiversity.
The successful candidate will be working at the SciLifeLab Data Centre, a central unit with responsibility for IT- and data management issues, serving the SciLifeLab and the Data Driven Life Science (DDLS) research program. We have a national assignment and, for example, operate the Swedish national COVID-19 research data portal. We also work with issues about FAIR data, open science, and data driven life science, and in close collaboration with major national and international e-infrastructures. Working at the Data Centre, you will be at the core of Sweden’s top infrastructure for life sciences and have the opportunity to actively shape how state-of-the-art IT and data science are integrated in Swedish life science research, and help to maximize the scientific impact of the large amount of research data generated at SciLifeLab. You will work in a team with researchers, data engineers, data stewards and system developers in a rapidly growing, dynamic and progressive team with a leading role in Swedish data driven life science.
The Data Science Node in Evolution and Biodiversity (DSN-EB) is looking for a Data Steward with experience of evolutionary biology and biodiversity to enable Life Science research in Sweden that is beyond what is achievable for individual researchers, a single university, or a single research area.
Duties
You will work closely with and guide research groups regarding research data management, and how they shall structure and publish the research data that they generate. To this end, part of the work will be to establish and perform procedures for user support to researchers wanting to deposit data from evolutionary biology and biodiversity. Another focus area will be providing expertise in establishing web-based services for processing and visualisation of biological data. The development of a genome portal for visualisation and browsing of DNA sequences will be one of the first tasks. The work will be carried out in a team together with researchers in evolution and biodiversity, other data stewards, bioinformaticians, data engineers, and system developers. You will be embedded in data management teams at the SciLifeLab Data Centre and the National Bioinformatics Infrastructure Sweden (approximately 15 people in total).
Requirements
- The applicant shall have a university degree within a relevant biology-related area, or shall possess an equivalent or higher level of understanding within one or several of these areas acquired by other means.
- Experience of working with data within evolutionary biology and/or biodiversity.
- Experience of working in Unix environment including scripting and automatisation.
- Knowledge about the principles of and conditions for Open Science and FAIR.
- You should be able to communicate in English in both speech and writing.
Emphasis will be put on personal suitability. The applicant shall have good interpersonal and communication skills, and be self-motivated. You should be service minded and able to adapt. You should also be quality conscious and result oriented.
Additional qualifications
- Experience of international repositories for deposition of Life Science data, and relevant data types, metadata and community standards.
- Experience of working with sequence data.
- Experience of working with user support.
- Experience of working in international collaborations or networks
About the employment
The employment is a permanent position (probationary period may be applied). Scope of employment 100 %. Starting date as agreed. Placement: Uppsala