Main Purpose of the Job

As a Bioinformatician supporting the Food, Microbiome and Health program, you will leverage your scientific expertise in metagenomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and microbiome data analysis to provide clear answers to scientific inquiries. You will play a key role in interpreting complex microbiome research projects, emphasising data analysis and visualisation using R or Python. Your results will directly contribute to scientific publications. You will join the experienced Core Bioinformatics team at Quadram Institute Bioscience, using and working on our reproducible analytical pipelines and benefiting from ample computing resources, including our cloud platform and HPC cluster. This role also offers the chance to collaborate on open-source methodologies and tools, making it ideal for advancing your bioinformatics career through on-the-job training.

Key Relationships

The post holder will report to the Head of Informatics and line managed by a senior Bioinformatician with the Core Bioinformatics team. The post holder will also work with Group Leaders, senior scientists and PhD students across the Food, Microbiome and Health programme to deliver high quality support for the bioinformatics analyses of large scale sequencing data. In addition, they will be expected to interact with the project team at the experimental planning stage to advise on best practices, and, once analysis is finished, facilitate biological interpretation and the preparation of papers and other outputs.
 

Main Activities & Responsibilities

Percentage

Provide expert data analysis and interpretation in collaborative analysis projects involving multiple bioinformatics analysts and researchers.

40

Use reproducible methodologies and version controlled code, for example, using R Markdown or a Jupyter notebook in a Git repository.

10

Ensure the validity and reliability of work conducted by using appropriate controls and simulated datasets. 

10

Contribute to developing and delivering bioinformatics training within the Institute. 

10

Commit to continual improvement and continue personal professional development through maintaining awareness of novel advances and developments in the scientific literature.

5

Present at national and international scientific meetings.

5

Assist (perhaps lead) in manuscript preparation and submission.

5

Participate in group meetings, workshops, internal and external seminars.

5

Support strategies within the Core Bioinformatics team for effective and timely user engagement, particularly by answering user support requests via our ticketing system and extends to user-group meetings and use of chat systems (Slack, Teams, etc).

5

Exercise discipline and regard for data integrity, confidentiality, and security. 

5

As agreed with the line manager, any other duties commensurate with the nature of the post

Education & Qualifications

Requirement

Importance

PhD/DPhil in bioinformatics, data science, computational biology, computing or a related computational subject

Essential

Specialist Knowledge & Skills

Requirement

Importance

Ability to program in at least one programming language (preferably Python)

Essential

Data science and data visualisation skills (for example using R)

Essential

Knowledge of methods for analysing microbiome datasets

Essential

Relevant Experience

Requirement

Importance

Experience in analysing large metagenome datasets, in particular, microbial metagenome short read sequence data

Essential

A record of publications and presentations at national and/or international conferences

Desirable

Experience working in a Unix / Linux environment, preferably on high performance computing (HPC) systems

Desirable

Experience in analysing metagenome (long read) sequence data

Desirable

Experience in the numerical analysis of NGS datasets such as RNA-Seq and/or gut microbiome data

Desirable

Experience of delivering a service and supporting a diverse customer base

Desirable

Experience of developing bioinformatics pipelines, using workflow languages.

Desirable

Interpersonal & Communication Skills

Requirement

Importance

Experience in working independently and applying problem solving skills

Essential

Committed to continual improvement and continue personal professional development

Essential

Evidence of excellent communication and interpersonal skills, as the post will involve working with staff across the Institute

Essential

Have excellent time management, and the ability to negotiate and meet deadlines

Essential

Additional Requirements

Requirement

Importance

Ability to maintain confidentiality and security of information where appropriate

Essential

Willingness to embrace the expected values and behaviours of all staff at the Institute, ensuring it is a great place to work

Essential

Able to present a positive image of self and the Institute, promoting both the international reputation and public engagement aims of the Institute

Essential

Willingness to work outside standard working hours when required

Essential

Attention to detail

Essential

Promotes equality and values diversity

Essential

Ability to undertake occasional travel (national and international) related to collaborations and/or seminars)

Desirable

Quadram Institute Bioscience

The Quadram Institute is at the forefront of a new interface between food science, gut biology and health, developing solutions to worldwide challenges in food-related disease and human health.

We are engaged in fundamental and translational food and health research, alongside clinical studies, endoscopy and industry, working together to become a leading international hub for food and health research, combining scientific excellence and clinical expertise, delivering impacts on patient care and accelerating innovation.

The Quadram Institute is a diverse and multicultural scientific community. We thrive on our international and European links, appointing staff from across the world. Any candidate who would like further information on current or anticipated immigration requirements can contact the HR Team on +44 (0)1603 450888 or nbi.recruitment@nbi.ac.uk.

For more information about working at Quadram Institute Bioscience, please click here.

Department

Food, Microbiome and Health

Group Details

The post holder will join the Core Bioinformatics team to support the Food, Microbiome and Health program at Quadram Institute Bioscience (QIB).

The Food, Microbiome and Health program seeks to address the nutritional and sustainability challenges of transitioning to plant-rich diets by unpicking the complex relationship between plant-based foods, gastrointestinal microbiome and human health through mechanistic research and exploitation of knowledge gained to develop new food and microbiome-based/targeted intervention strategies that increase health span by building resilience and improving resistance to cardiometabolic disease and gastrointestinal tract health.

The Core Bioinformatics team at QIB takes advantage of economies of scale and shared expertise, and promotes best practices. We have a mission to automate and streamline QIB activities as much as we can. Our team specialises in creating reproducible and scalable analytical pipelines, prioritising efficiency. These pipelines are supported by abundant computing resources available on our on-premises cloud computing platform or the campus-wide high-performance computing (HPC) cluster. Within Core Bioinformatics, we manage a Galaxy server, an OpenStack Cloud instance, and Apptainer packages for the HPC. We also develop and release Galaxy and Nextflow workflows, providing internal training on these cutting-edge technologies. 

Living in Norfolk

• Visit Norfolk
• Schools in Norfolk
• Childcare in Norfolk

Bioinformatician

Applications are invited for an enthusiastic and motivated Bioinformatician to join the Food, Microbiome and Health programme at Quadram Institute Bioscience (QIB), based in Norwich, UK.

Background:

The Food, Microbiome and Health (FMH) programme establishes a knowledge and expertise hub in food science and structure, and gastrointestinal tract (GIT) microbiome function to address at the mechanistic level how food, diet and GI microbes promote health. This entails the interrogation of metagenomics, metabolomics and associated microbiome data looking at all domains in the GIT microbiome; prokaryome (i.e., bacteria and archaea), virome (phageome) and mycobiome (fungi). 

The role:

As a Bioinformatician supporting the FMH program, you will bring scientific expertise with a strong background in analysis of metagenomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and associated microbiome data to provide decisive answers to scientific questions.  You will be expected to assist (and perhaps lead) the interpretation of large and dense microbiome research projects generated as part of the institute program. This position has a strong focus on data analysis and visualisation (using either R or Python). A typical example is the exploratory analysis, plotting, and statistical testing of microbiome abundances from metabarcoding or metagenomics datasets.

You will be embedded within the Core Bioinformatics team for Quadram Institute Bioscience, which is composed of experienced Bioinformaticians, providing a friendly environment to enhance your skills. Our team develops reproducible and scalable analytical pipelines with a focus on promoting efficiency. There are ample computing resources for these pipelines; on either our on premises cloud computing platform or on the campus wide high performance computing (HPC) cluster. Core Bioinformatics maintains a Galaxy server, an OpenStack Cloud instance, Apptainer packages for the HPC; develops and releases Galaxy and Nextflow workflows, and organises internal training on those technologies. Both the supporting team and supporting infrastructure will accelerate your research.

You will also have the opportunity to work with researchers on publishing new methodologies, and tools which we make available as open-source software. This position is ideal for someone wanting to grow their bioinformatics experience and we will provide on the job training to propel your bioinformatics career.

The ideal candidate:

The ideal candidate will have a PhD/DPhil in bioinformatics, data science, computational biology, computing, or a related computational subject. They will have the ability to program in at least one programming language (preferably Python) and data science and data visualisation skills (for example using R). Experience in analysing large metagenome datasets, in particular, microbial metagenome short read sequence data as well as knowledge of methods for analysing microbiome datasets.

Additional information:

Salary on appointment will be within the range £35,300 to £43,750 per annum depending on qualifications and experience. This is a full-time post for a contract of 51 months.

Interviews will be held on 24 October 2023.

We are committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sectors of society.  The Institute supports equality of opportunity within the workplace and expects all employees to share and display these values.  To support our commitment, we have a range of family, faith and diversity friendly working arrangements to help all staff achieve excellence in their area of work.

As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee to offer an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for this vacancy.

About the Quadram Institute:

The Quadram Institute is a new interdisciplinary research institute dedicated to understanding how food and microbes interact to promote health and prevent disease. Its mission is to deliver healthier lives through innovation in gut health, microbiology and food. A partnership between Quadram Institute Bioscience, the University of East Anglia, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and BBSRC, it brings together scientists and clinicians in a state-of-the-art building on the Norwich Research Park. This is one of Europe’s largest centres of life sciences and home of the John Innes Centre and The Earlham Institute. (https://quadram.ac.uk/).

The closing date for applications will be 3 October 2023

The Quadram Institute Bioscience is a registered charity (No. 1058499) and is an Equal Opportunities Employer.