Bioinformatics Analyst - Virology at J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in La Jolla, California

Job Description:

Bioinformatics Analyst - Virology

JCVI – La Jolla, CA

Job Responsibilities: The Bioinformatics Analyst - Virology will work as a member of the Scheuermann bioinformatics research team on analysis of viral genomic, immune epitope, protein structure, and related data for the purpose of vaccine development for newly emerging viral pathogens as part of a research project supported by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) through the DiseaseX initiative.The Bioinformatics Analyst - Virology will contribute by participating in the following activities:

• Identifying and capturing public sources of relevant virus data


• Curating datasets based on quality control metrics


• Performing complex data mining analysis related to comparative genomics and phylogenetic evolution, including the identification of conserved and variable regions of viral proteins


• Performing immune epitope prediction analysis of viral proteins


• Comparing predicted and experimental immune epitope data with sequence conservation analysis to identify conserved epitope regions


• Incorporating protein structure information to select optimal vaccine candidates


• Collaborating with team members performingin vitroandin vivoexperiments to analyze and assess immunogenicity of selected vaccine candidates


• Performing other data analysis tasks as needed for the CEPI project and other similar virology research projects

Requirements

Qualifications: Successful candidates should have an M.S. or Ph.D. degree in the life sciences, public heath, bioinformatics, computer science, or statistics with strong familiarity with bioinformatics, computational biology, genomic analysis and general life sciences research.

The candidate must have a strong working knowledge of bioinformatics, virology, and immunology related to genomics, transcriptomics and/or proteomics data, and of public database resources such as NCBI Entrez/GenBank, EBI ArrayExpress, PDB, IEDB, etc.Programming skills in Python and R are required.Laboratory research experience in virology, immunology or related disciplines, especially related to NIH-defined Category A – C viral pathogens (http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/biodefenserelated/biodefense/pages/cata.aspx) is preferred.

The Bioinformatics Analyst will interact with other scientific team members with limited bioinformatics background; therefore, strong interpersonal and communication skills are required.

Physical Demands
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to, stand, sit; talk, hear, and use hands and fingers to operate a computer and telephone keyboard, and reach, stoop, kneel to install computer equipment.


• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision requirements due to computer work.


• Light to moderate lifting is required.

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee.

J. Craig Venter Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic or status.

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