Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación
Barcelona, Spain
CLOSING DATE: Tuesday, 31 December, 2013
Description
AREA:
Life Sciences
Computational Genomics
.
JOB DESCRIPTION:
BSC joins experts in genomics, genetics of complex disease, systems biology, and has direct access to supercomputing resources, as it hosts and manages the MareNostrum supercomputer, with a total capacity of 1 Petaflop, ranking among the top 36 supercomputers in the world. The Life Sciences department of the BSC has a joint program with Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB-BSC), which gives access to all the laboratories and facilities of this institution.
Large-scale genome-wide association studies have been performed in order to identify genes involved in the pathology of many complex diseases. However, despite the huge investment and amount of data generated, we have learned very little about the etiology of the majority of the diseases. The objective of the current project is to develop and apply novel computational and statistical methods in order to identify new genes and pathways involved in complex diseases. For that, we will exploit existing and new genetic datasets, covering up to 44 different diseases and more than 250,000 samples, obtained from publicly available
resources and through worldwide collaborations. The methods will include systems biology, genotype imputation using next generation sequencing data, and integration of data from different omics resources. Experimental and functional validation will be performed in collaboration with laboratories with expertise in each of the disease of interest.
The computational genomics group, headed by Dr. David Torrents, from the Life Sciences Department at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center is offering a PhD student position to contribute to the development of novel methods and its application to existing and upcoming datasets.
The project is funded by the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes-Lilly research fellowship, and will be supervised by Dr. Josep M Mercader.
Main References:
K Bønnelykke; P Sleiman; K Nielsen; E Kreiner-Møller; JM Mercader; D Belgrave; HT Den Dekker; A Husby; A Sevelsted; G Faura-Tellez; L Juel; L Paternoster; R Flaaten; A Mølgaard; De Smart; FP Thomsen; S Bonas-Guarch; C Holst; Ea Nohr; R Yadav; Me March; T Blicher; Pm Lackie; Vwv Jaddow; A Simpson; JW Holloway; L Duijts; A Custovic; De Davies; D Torrents; R Gupta; Mv Hollegaard; Dm Hougaard; H Hakonarsson; H Bisgaard. A genome-wide association study of early childhood asthma with
severe exacerbations identifies Cadherin Related Family Member 3 (CDHR3) as a novel susceptibility gene. Nature Genetics (in press).
Josep M Mercader, Montserrat Puiggros, Ayellet V. Segrè, Evarist Planet, Eleonora Sorianello, David Sebastian, Sergio Rodriguez-Cuenca, Vicent Ribas, Sílvia Bonàs-Guarch, Sorin Draghici, Chenjing Yang, Sílvia Mora, Antoni Vidal-Puig, Josée Dupuis, DIAGRAM Consortium, Jose C Florez, MITIN Consortium, Antonio Zorzano, David Torrents.Identification of novel type 2 diabetes candidate genes involved in the crosstalk between the mitochondrial and the insulin systems. PLoS Genetics. 2012.
Main Responsibilities:
- Development and testing of novel statistical and computational methods for Genome-wide Association Studies, Systems Biology, and analysis of Next Generation sequencing data.
- Implementation of methods, analysis of datasets and interpretation of the results.
- Presentation and dissemination of results.
Requirements and skills
- Interest and advanced statistics skills.
- Programming with R, Perl, Unix, etc...
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.
- Able to work in a team.
The following skills will also be evaluated:
- Previous experience with genetics, genomics, or other omics or large datasets.
- Previous experience with parallel computing.
-Degree in mathematics, statistics or related, or degree in biomedical sciences and postgraduate or master in bioinformatics.
- BS or Master in biostatistics, bioinformatics, or related.
More information and applications