GENERAL SUMMARY OF POSITION:

Under the direction of a member of the faculty, the Bioinformatician is responsible for the design, development, evaluation and iterative modification of a technical infrastructure to expedite the quantitative evaluation of data resulting from studies that are laboratory based.  The position will entail the establishment and maintenance of applicable in-house bioinformatics resources and interaction with individual lab members on customized research projects, as well independent projects that are the solely computational.

This opportunity is available in the ZLab at UMass Medical School working closely with Dr. Zhiping Weng.  Dr. Weng is the Li Weibo Professor of biomedical research and chair of the program in integrative biology and bioinformatics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.  Research Interests are:  Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics, Epigenomics, Transcriptional Regulation.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Establish general bioinformatics resources for day-to-day use by members of the laboratory
• In collaboration with a faculty member, generate customized programming solutions to improve user interaction with available bioinformatics resources
• Assist in the implementation of programs for microarray analysis, high-throughput sequencing data analysis, cis regulatory motif identification, and multi-genome protein motif searches
• Local establishment and customization of model organism genomic databases and tools for batch sequence analysis utilizing these resources
• Interpret and present study results in support of laboratory members
• Provide tabular and written summaries of approaches and analyses in a form suitable for inclusion in manuscripts or grant applications, as well as media for presentation at scientific meetings
• Develop and implement custom bioinformatics programming solutions in collaboration with lab as necessary
• Coordinate and collaborate with other research computing expertise at the Medical School as necessary
• Participate in conference calls and data management meetings as needed
• Perform other duties as required.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• BS in computer science or a related discipline  
• 0-1 year of related experience
• Strong background in statistical methodology, software languages and computer systems (Perl, C++, R, MySQL, etc.)
• Experience in writing basic search algorithms and the ability to generate new algorithms and programs for custom data manipulation and analysis
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written, and interpersonal skills necessary to interact with a wide range of individuals

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