The Andersson lab is looking to recruit up to two highly motivated and talented PhD students to join our group working on computational biology with a strong focus on enhancers and transcriptional regulation. The successful candidates are expected to start during spring 2017.
Read full job ad and apply online at http://employment.ku.dk/phd/?show=878622 (deadline for applications is January 20, 2017).
Context
The lab of Robin Andersson focuses on genomics and computational/statistical modeling of transcriptional regulation based on large-scale sequencing data, including experimental data generated from within the lab. We aim to characterize and better understand the architectures and complexities of transcriptional regulation (see e.g. Andersson et al. 2014, Nature) and gain insights into the mechanisms of regulation. We further focus on the fundamental properties of enhancers and promoters (see e.g. Andersson et al. 2015, Trends Genet) as well as the biogenesis and characteristics of enhancer RNAs (see e.g. Andersson et al. 2014, Nat Comms). For more information, see http://anderssonlab.org.
Projects
The correct function of regulatory elements and their interplay are essential for the precisely coordinated transcriptional activities within a cell. Disrupted regulatory activities may therefore have detrimental effects leading to disease. However, most variants have no or an only weakly associated trait and, in general, the impact of genetic variants on regulation is not well understood. Therefore, using our established transcription-based method to assess activities of regulatory elements and the associations between them, we aim to systematically characterize human regulatory variation and its consequences. We further aim to infer models describing the function of a regulatory element and its importance, and thus the impact on regulation upon disruption.
The successful candidates are expected to work on projects related, but not limited, to 1) computational modeling of enhancer regulation and genome-wide mapping of enhancer architectures; and 2) assessment of the extent and impact of individual variation and genetic variants in regulatory architectures in order to understand their importance, stochasticity and robustness.
Qualifications
The successful candidates should have a computational and/or statistical background and experience with analysis of large-scale data. Experiences with DNA or RNA sequencing data, genotyping data, statistical genetics, computational modeling, machine learning and/or statistical learning techniques are considered a major plus. Importantly, the candidate should have a strong interest in transcription and transcriptional regulation.
Specifically, the candidates should meet the following requirements:
- A MSc in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology or in a related quantitative field to be able to quickly acquire Bioinformatics computational skills
- Excellent programming and data analytical skills
- Fluent English
The following are not required but considered a plus:
- Documented expertise in statistical learning and/or machine learning techniques
- Documented experience in the analysis of functional genetic variation
Place of employment
The Andersson lab is based in a highly collaborative environment in the Bioinformatics Centre in the Section for Computational and RNA Biology, which is currently composed of 11 strong research groups. The Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, is located at the Biocenter in central Copenhagen, Denmark. Read more about the Andersson lab at http://anderssonlab.org.
