The Cruchaga Lab, member of the Neurogenomics and Informatics Center (NGI) at Washington University School of Medicine invites applications for a non-tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Research Assistant Professor to study the role of circular RNAs (circRNAs) and Transposable elements (TE) in Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
CircRNAs is a new category of non-coding RNAs that result from backsplicing events and are highly expressed in the central nervous system, especially in synapses. Recently, our group identified significant associations between circRNA expression and AD diagnosis, clinical dementia and neuropathological severity. We developed the first human brain atlas of circRNAs. Based on these and other recent findings, Dr. Cruchaga has two new NIH-funded projects to identify additional circRNAs, TE in large and well-characterized AD cohorts.
We are looking for investigators with expertise in RNA biology, high dimensional analysis of RNA-seq data, circRNAs and TE in neuroscience to lead these analyses. The successful candidate will join an already stablished team that include senior and junior scientists as well as Postdocs and PhD students that will also be involved on these projects.
Recent publications on the subject:
Dube U, et al. Nat Neurosci. 2019. PMID: 31591557 ǀ Chen HH, et al. Acta Neuropathol. Commun. 2022, PMID: 35246267 ǀ Bellenguez C, et al. Nat Genet. 2022, PMID: 35379992 ǀ Ibanez, L. Genes (Basel). 2021. PMID: 34440421
Duties
- Responsible for developing end-to-end an innovative project studying circRNAs and Transposable Elements in AD
- Lead, develop, and troubleshoot specific analyses
- Multi-task projects and keeping pace in a dynamic research environment
- Present research advances at a variety of internal and external seminars
- Lead manuscript writing
- Direct, coordinate and supervise laboratory personal
- Ability to mentor students and research staff
Preferred Qualifications
- PhD or MD with 5 years of postdoctoral experience
- Prominent record of research achievements in RNA biology
- Demonstrated expertise in RNA-seq and genetic analysis (DESeq2, DCC, Salmon, Star, Picard, FastQC, MultiQC, RATTLE, Docker, PLINK, IBD, PCA, association analyses, R, Bash) and omic data integration
- Independent in literature search and keeping abreast of new scientific developments
- Good communications and writing skills
- Demonstrable commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion
The Cruchaga Lab provides a unique collaborative scientific environment emphasizing the analysis of functional genomics and high dimensional omics data to understand AD and other dementias. The Lab is member of the NGI that includes faculties with expertise in genetics, genomics, multi-omics, machine learning, iPSC, animal models of neurodegenerative diseases and Clinical research. The new faculty member will work in a collegial environment in a well-established, well-funded research group, currently 35+ dynamic members, developing bioinformatics tools and analyzing multi omics data to explore the frontiers of AD.
Special Instructions
Applicants should submit:
- cover letter describing their interest in the position
- curriculum vitae
- one-page description of their single-most important paper highlighting the novelty of the findings (accepted papers only); and
- names and contact information of 3 professional references.
Please send the materials in a single PDF to the attention of the Search Committee at cgleason@wustl.edu
