Postdoctoral Researcher – AI/ML applications in Personalised Medicine at the Computational Biology group

Date limit
16-03-2021
Institution
Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC)
 
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, and is a hosting member of the PRACE European distributed supercomputing infrastructure. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 700 staff from 49 countries.

Context And Mission

The Computational Biology group, led by ICREA professor Alfonso Valencia, is looking for a postdoctoral researcher to work in the context of AI/ML applications in Personalised Medicine.

The Life Sciences Department at the BSC integrates the independent research of senior scientists that work on various aspects of computational biology, ranging from bioinformatics for genomics to computational biochemistry and text mining. The Computational Biology group (http://life.bsc.es/compbio) is involved in multiple projects covering a wide range of topics including multilayer network modeling, epigenomics and computations systems biology.

The candidate will work in collaboration with senior researchers in the Computational Biology Group of the Life Sciences Department as well as other research groups at the BSC. The work is in the framework of the research lines of the group, which include applications of AI in personalized medicine, cell-level simulations including metabolic models, sequence-based protein coevolution and genomics.

The Researcher will work in a highly sophisticated HPC environment, will have access to state-of-the-art systems and computational infrastructures, and will establish collaborations with experts in different areas both at international and local levels, in particular. The Researcher’s tasks will involve applying AI/ML methods in the context of biomedical decision making. The analysis will focus on OMICs data from patients, leveraging in particular knowledge of cellular mechanisms in biological networks.

Key Duties

  • Development of AI solutions, with special emphasis on machine learning methods, for the analysis and interpretation of biological data.
  • Use predictive computational methods based on statistical and inference approaches to model complex biological processes.
  • Integration of heterogeneous data sources using advanced data mining and ML techniques.
  • Explore novel application scopes for multilayer network methods in the life sciences.
  • Preparation and presentation of scientific articles.
  • Establish and maintain collaborations with national and international researchers.

Requirements

  • Education
    • PhD in computer science or bioinformatics with an AI component.
    • Alternatively, an MSc on AI or Bioinformatics, with a strong computer science background, or background on applied mathematics/physics with demonstrated experience in AI methods.
  • Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience
    • Experience in AI methodologies.
    • Interest in the life sciences area.
  • Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience
    • Knowledge and experience in life sciences research.
    • Knowledge and experience in AI methodologies:
      ▪ Data pre/post-processing (feature selection, feature reduction, plotting and visualization).
      ▪ Knowledge representation.
      ▪ Complex networks (graph-based representation, graph analytics).
      ▪ Fundamentals of Traditional Statistical and Machine Learning methods (SVD, Kernel methods, decision trees, neural networks).
      ▪ Supervised and unsupervised learning (classification, clustering, regression).
      ▪ Deep learning (TensorFlow, PyTorch, Caffe, word embeddings).
    • Programming: Python (scikit-learn, numpy, matplotlib), Matlab, R, Java, C, C++, Git.
  • Competences
    • Fluency in spoken and written English.
    • Capacity to explore new research lines.
    • Good communication and presentation skills.
    • Ability to work both independently and within a team.

Conditions

  • The position will be located at BSC within the Life Sciences Department
  • We offer a full-time contract, a good working environment, a highly stimulating environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure, flexible working hours, extensive training plan, tickets restaurant, private health insurance, fully support to the relocation procedures
  • Duration: Temporary - 1 year, renewable renewable
  • Salary: we offer a competitive salary commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate and according to the cost of living in Barcelona
  • Starting date: asap

Applications Procedure

All applications should be uploaded in the bottom web form and must include:

  • A Cover Letter with a statement of interest in English, including two contacts for further references - Applications without this document will not be considered
  • A full CV in English including contact details

Deadline

The vacancy will remain open until suitable candidate has been hired. Applications will be regularly reviewed and potential candidates will be contacted.

Diversity and Equal Opportunity Employment

BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law.
This position is reserved for candidates who meet the requirements and have the legal status of disabled persons with a degree of disability equal to or greater than 33%. In case there are no applicants with disabilities that meet the requirements, the rest of the candidates without declared disability will be evaluated.