Cancer Variant Curator (Senior Scientist) - Apply Now!
McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University in St Louis, MO, USA
The position’s primary task will be assisting in the editorial maintenance and evolution of the Clinical Interpretations of Variants in Cancer knowledgebase (http://civicdb.org). The position will involve review of genomic findings to assist in the curation of the biomedical literature and use of basic bioinformatics skills and resources. Initially, most effort will involve mining the literature and creating summaries of known clinically actionable genomic alterations. The applicant will ultimately be expected to help produce educational materials and training of other CIViC curators as part of their role on the project. Individuals in this role will be expected to support planned Hackathon and Curation Workshops (at national and international venues), providing training and organizational / planning support alongside other CIViC team members. Prior events can be found here: https://civicdb.org/meetings. Collaboration with developers, clinicians and researchers is a routine portion of this position.
Role requirements:
- Strong oral and written communication skills
- Extensive experience in variant interpretation and/or cancer research
- Candidates can demonstrate significant independence and drive
- Bioinformatic or programming experience is preferred
Learning expectations:
The position will involve review of cancer genomic literature and will greatly increase the applicants knowledge of this field with a specific focus on the well-characterized recurrent genomic aberrations that currently have clinical implications as predictive, diagnostic, predictive, or prognostic markers as well as functional characterization of variants. Use of common informatics tools (Biomart, genome browsers, etc) will be necessary. Some amount of basic programming may be learned but this is not the main focus.
Position highlights:
CIViC has gained international recognition, with routine conference calls with clinical directors, bioinformaticians and researchers from around the globe. Ample connections to ABMGG certified individuals and clinical labs are provided. Attendance of at least 1 conference per year will be supported. Co-authorship and potentially lead authorship on future publications is anticipated. Driven candidates have the opportunity for international exposure, research inquiries, bioinformatic experience and collaboration with organizations driving international standards and guidelines. The prior candidate in this position went on to a laboratory genetics and genomics fellowship.
Supervision:
The initial phase of training will involve one on one instruction from postdoctoral fellows or faculty with the expectation of self-directed work. Weekly meetings with the CIViC team and Griffith Lab will be expected. Additional formal meetings will be conducted as needed.
Read more about CIViC:
- Initial publication in Nature Genetics
- ClinGen Collaboration
- CIViC Curation Standard Operating Procedures
Related publications:
- CIViCpy - CIViC analysis toolkit (in review)
- CIViCmine - Text mining clinical relevant biomarkers (in review)
- GA4GH Variant Interpretation for Cancer Consortium - (in review)
