Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences University of Copenhagen
We are looking for a highly motivated and ambitious bioinformatician, cheminformatician, software developer or data scientist for a 2-year position commencing as soon as possible but with a flexible starting date. Applicants with a MSc degree are welcome to apply for a research assistant position, while applicant that hold a PhD degree are welcome to apply for a postdoc position.
Our research
The Gloriam group (www.gloriamgroup.org) does bioinformatics, data science and computational drug design for G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) – the most common mediators of human signalling and drug responses. The group also heads the GPCR field’s main database and web server, GPCRdb (http://www.GPCRdb.org) serving more than 9,000 researchers every month. A subgroup managed by Assistant Professor Alexander S. Hauser investigates the impact of genetic variations on drug response combining genetic, pharmacological, and epidemiological data. The Gloriam group is very international, provides a strong and ambitious research environment and has recently published in e.g., Nature, Cell, Nature Reviews in Drug Discovery, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology and Nucleic Acids Research.
Job description
You will create an online hub for a consolidated global “open science” effort to make a knowledge base for personalised medicine and pharmacogenomics, enabling integration and analysis of data from genetics, structure biology, molecular pharmacology, and (pharmaco)epidemiology. This includes reference research data, data visualisation, and data-driven tools to empower new hypotheses and experiments for the study of adverse drug reactions. This will be achieved in tight collaboration with a strong local team of programmers and of interdisciplinary experimental scientists, as well as experts and users from the international research community.
The position is part of an ambitious project funded by the Lundbeck Foundation entitled "Advancing personalised medicine for psychiatric diseases through integrative GPCR pharmacogenomics". The overall objective of the project is to provide a basis for genetics-based personalised drug prescriptions for some of the most frequently used CNS drugs acting on GPCRs. The project runs in close collaboration with the experimental Molecular Pharmacology group led by Professor Hans Bräuner-Osborne and the iPSYCH consortium (https://ipsych.dk/en/) with leading data and expertise in the genetic linkages to psychiatric disease.
Career development within research and education is part of the position. The candidate can gain relevant teaching experience (10% of the time), which will support the development of a relevant teaching track record and portfolio.
Profile
We are looking for a highly motivated and ambitious bioinformatician, data scientist, or software/database developer proficient with biologically driven questions, ideally experienced in web programming.
Essential experience and skills:
- A MSc and/or PhD related to bioinformatics, cheminformatics, data science, programming, or software/database development. Please note that your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (two years).
- Excellent programming skills, preferably in Python
- Experience in dataset analysis and parsing
- Proficient communication skills and ability to work in teams
- Excellent English skills written and spoken
Desirable experience and skills:
- Experience with software and/or database design
- Web programming (e.g. HTML/CSS/JavaScript) and web frameworks (e.g. Flask/Django)
- Code versioning with Github
- Experience working with biobanks such as the UKBiobank
- Knowledge of pharmacogenomics, or other biological data
Place of employment
The place of employment is at the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen (www.drug.ku.dk). We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in a dynamic and international research environment. Our research facilities include modern laboratories and computational facilities.
Terms of employment
The employment as postdoc is a full time and fixed-term position for 2 years, with possibility for prolongation. Starting date is after agreement.
Salary, pension and terms of employment will be in accordance with the agreement between the Danish Ministry of Finance and AC (Danish Confederation of Professional Associations). Currently, the monthly salary starts at approx 29,900 DKK/ 4,000 Euro for a research assistant and approx 35,000 DKK/ 4,700 Euro for a postdoc (October 2021-level). Depending on qualifications, a supplement may be negotiated. The employer will pay an additional 17.1 % to your pension fund.
Non-Danish and Danish applicants may be eligible for tax reductions if they hold a PhD degree and have not lived in Denmark in the last 10 years.
The position is covered by the “Memorandum on Job Structure for Academic Staff at the Universities” of January 2020.
Questions
For specific information about the position, please contact Assistant Professor Alexander S. Hauser, email: alexander.hauser@sund.ku.dk or Professor David Gloriam, email: david.gloriam@sund.ku.dk.
For more information on working and living in Denmark: https://ism.ku.dk/, and www.workingconditions.ku.dk.
Application procedure Your online application must be submitted in English by clicking ‘Apply now’ below. Furthermore, your application must include the following documents/attachments – all in PDF format:
- Letter of motivation for application (cover letter). Please mention why you are interested in the position and why this could be the right project for you. Also mention if you apply for the research assistant or postdoc position (depends on whether your highest degree is a MSc or PhD degree).
- CV incl. education, work/research experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position.
- A certified/signed copy of a) PhD certificate (If the PhD is not completed, a written statement from the supervisor will do) and b)Certified copy of original Master of Science diploma and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in other language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted. As a prerequisite for a PhD fellowship employment, your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree. We encourage you to read more in the assessment database: https://ufm.dk/en/education/recognition-and-transparency/find-assessments/assessment-database. Please note that we might ask you to obtain an assessment of your education performed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science. Applicants with a Master ́s degree from abroad should also enclose a short description of the grading scale used.
- List of publications, including a separate section or marking of up to 5 most important selected articles.
Application deadline: 28 February 2022, 23.59pm CET
We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements. At the same time as this advertisement, the department also publishes a position as research assistant in bioinformatics / cheminformatics / data science / database development within personalised medicine. Only one of the two positions will be filled.
The further process
After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor. Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.
You can read about the recruitment process at https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process./
The applicant will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.
Interviews are expected to be held within a month after the application deadline.
The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.
Part of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), and among Europe’s top-ranking universities, the University of Copenhagen promotes research and teaching of the highest international standard. Rich in tradition and modern in outlook, the University gives students and staff the opportunity to cultivate their talent in an ambitious and informal environment. An effective organisation – with good working conditions and a collaborative work culture – creates the ideal framework for a successful academic career.
