Position:                Scientific Associate
Location:               MaRS Centre, Toronto
Department:          Computational Biology (Pai Lab)
Reports To:           Shraddha Pai, Principal Investigator I
Salary:                   Commensurate with level of experience
Hours:                    35 hours/week
Job Type:               On-site
Status:                   Full-time, Temporary (2-year contract with possibility of converting to                                                permanent)

The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) is seeking a professional to fill the key role of Bioinformatics Scientific Associate, within the Pai Lab in the Adaptive Oncology Department.

This position is for a two-year contract, with possibility of converting to a permanent position.

To learn more about the Pai Lab, visit our lab webpage.

The Pai Lab’s vision is to use genomics to match patients with the best treatment options, and to find actionable molecular targets for effective therapies that have minimal side effects. We specialize in brain-associated cancers and disorders, and in the contribution of the non-coding genome (epigenome) to disease progression and clinical management.

We discover biomarkers by integrating clinical and multi-‘omic data from primary normal and disease tissues, and from population genomics databases. We integrate primary data with databases of pathways, gene regulation, disease association, and druggability, to prioritize potential targets. Our projects involve computational biology, bulk tissue and single-cell genomics, molecular biology, tissue culture, and genome editing, and we hold ourselves to a high standard of excellence.

We work in a structured environment, applying established software workflows to generate new biological insights. We routinely use High Performance Compute clusters to process datasets with hundreds of millions of datapoints. We also develop novel algorithms and open-source software as needed. Our collaborations are interdisciplinary and include genome scientists, clinicians, and experts in drug discovery. We are part of the world-class precision genomics community at OICR and lead scientist Dr. Shraddha Pai has a faculty appointment in the Medical Biophysics department at the University of Toronto.

The successful candidate will contribute to ongoing lab projects by performing genomic data analyses and communicating these to the team. They will contribute to research publications and help generate preliminary data for grant submissions. They will also help maintain the lab’s bioinformatics infrastructure. They will work closely with the lab head, trainees, lab staff, and collaborators.  

This is an exciting opportunity to apply genomics and bioinformatics expertise to preclinical research in brain cancer and brain disorders, with the potential for changing clinical care.

To learn more about working at OICR, visit our career page.

The responsibilities include:

• Apply software pipelines and workflows established in the lab to process and analyze new and published datasets. g., WGBS, RNAseq, WGS, scRNA-seq, scMultiome-seq, and similar. Analysis includes visualization, descriptive/inferential statistics, and multi-modal integration.
• Generate high-quality reports in the lab-specified formats for results communication, and to contribute to publication writing.
• Develop genomics software pipelines as required by emerging projects, and to use testing to ensure accurate outcomes (g., white box, black box, unit tests).
• Maintain genomics pipelines and dependencies so that they run efficiently on the OICR High Performance Compute cluster and lab servers.
• Jointly perform system administration of the lab’s Unix server.
• Where needed, to deposit lab-generated data in public repositories (e.g., GEO, SRA).
• Where needed, to guide lab members in the use of established genomics analysis workflows.
• Where needed, to prototype software implementations for computational methods to visualize, integrate, and interpret multi-omics data.

 Qualifications:

• Completion of a Masters of PhD in bioinformatics, data science, computer science, engineering, or similar quantitative field, or equivalent education or work experience.
• Genomics data analysis experience in R, including visualization, NGS data processing, descriptive & inferential statistics.
• Intermediate to advanced Unix working skills, and ability to write and run bash scripts.
• Ability to apply best practices in programming and testing to produce consistently accurate results.
• Ability to generate clearly documented code and concise, informative data reports.
• Experience using a high-performance compute cluster (HPC).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, and data reporting skills.
• Ability to thrive in a collaborative, team-based environment.
• Experience working with epigenomic data is an asset.
• Experience working with genomic annotation resources is an asset (e.g., BioMart, UCSC genome browser, ENCODE).

OICR is a collaborative, not-for-profit research institute accelerating the development of new cancer research discoveries for patients around the world while maximizing the economic benefit of this research for the people of Ontario. We are dedicated professionals who bring expertise to each of our roles. We are looking for individuals who share our values of excellence, innovation, collaboration, impact, responsibility and community.

Launched in December 2005, OICR is an independent institute funded by the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Colleges and Universities.

For more information about OICR, please visit the website at www.oicr.on.ca.

CLOSING DATE: Until Filled

OICR is committed to fostering a climate of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. This commitment is central to, and mutually supportive of, our research excellence mandate. We welcome and respect the diversity of all members of our community and we support an inclusive culture for all. We welcome all applicants, and encourage applications from racialized persons, Indigenous Peoples, women, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ2S persons, and others who may contribute to furthering a diversity of ideas within our community. OICR is committed to fair assessment of a candidate’s abilities, and consideration for diversity of thought, method, and experience. Providing an accessible workplace and recruitment process is important to us, as described in our Accessibility Plan (https://oicr.on.ca/accessibility/).  Should you require accommodation during any stage in the recruitment process, please complete the form at the bottom of page https://oicr.on.ca/careers/. Information received related to accommodation will be handled confidentially.  

The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research thanks all applicants. However, only those under consideration will be contacted.

Resume Format: If you elect to apply, you will need a text or HTML version of your resume so that you can cut and paste it into the application box provided. Before you submit the completed application, you will be asked to attach one or two files to your application. Please attach your resume as a .pdf or .doc file.