Computational Scientist - Clinical Cancer Prevention

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston is one of the world's most respected centers focused on cancer patient care, research, education and prevention. It was named the nation's No. 1 hospital for cancer care in U.S. News & World Report's 2018 rankings. It is one of the nation's original three comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute.

The Computational Scientist will function as follows: At MD Anderson, for institutional initiatives and with the Department of Clinical Cancer Prevention, patients' clinical and genomic data will be collected and integrated to create increasingly large data repositories that will be mined to drive translational research and ultimately improve patient outcome.

JOB SPECIFIC COMPETENCIES

DEVELOP ANALYSIS TOOLS

• Develop, implement, maintain, and oversee next-generation sequencing (NGS) data processing pipelines in a high performance computing environment

• Develop, implement, and execute algorithms for whole exome and whole genome NGS and SNP array analyses for detection of copy number variation.

• Develop software modules to regularly perform standard data analysis routines in an automated fashion and provide visualization tools for clinicians and researchers to explore the results.

• Identify issues of practical or theoretical importance and drive to solutions through innovative mathematical/computational approaches. Evaluate existing algorithms and develop new algorithms and user friendly tools for modeling genomic variation that can be deployed to MD Anderson or larger research communities.

PROVIDE SYSTEMS BIOLOGY SUPPORT

• Work closely with clinicians and biologists to provide customized bioinformatics/computational support throughout their studies.

• Systematically explore and mine multi-dimensional data to validate experimental findings or formulate hypotheses to provide directions of further studies. Work with bioinformaticians, IT personnel, and other researchers to respond to new technologies

• Extract and integrate internal and public genomic and clinical data to produce standardized data sets that can be distributed within MD Andersons' computing environment and used by clinicians and researchers.

• Collaborate with team members, including trainees and collaborating PI's, to support varied computational biology tasks and support innovative computational solutions problems in genetics, genomics and cancer biology.

Education
Required: Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics or related field.

Preferred: Master's degree or PhD with a concentration in Science, Engineering or related field.

Experience
Required: Five years experience in scientific software development/analysis. With preferred degree three years experience required.

Preferred: Previous experience in next-generation sequencing analysis. Previous experience in a Research Statistical Analyst role.

It is the policy of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to provide equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, age, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or any other basis protected by institutional policy or by federal, state or local laws unless such distinction is required by law. http://www.mdanderson.org/about-us/legal-and-policy/legal-statements/eeo-affirmative-action.html