Research Assistant or Postdoc in Spatial Bioinformatics

A full-time position as research assistant or postdoc (37 hours/week) is vacant across the Center for Integrated Multi-omics in Precision Medicine (CIMP) and the Danish Spatial Imaging Consortium (DanSIC) within Molecular Bone histology (MBH) lab at the Research Unit of Pathology, the Department of Clinical Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southern Denmark. 

The position is limited to one year with the possibility of extension. 

The research assistant position may potentially lead to the opportunity to begin a PhD position based on the candidate’s career stage and wishes. We prioritize the best fitting candidate independent of career level, as we are seeking a skilful and motivated bioinformatician to join our team. 

CIMP is a flagship center at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) and Odense University Hospital (OUH) that aim to prevent overtreatment in osteoporosis, breast cancer and multiple sclerosis, using integrated multi-omics to personalize the de-escalation of treatment. CIMP is headed by Professor Vijay Tiwari together with Professor Mads Thomassen, Professor Richard Röttger, Professor Zsolt Illes and Professor Thomas L.G. Andersen, who leads the spatial transcriptomics and focus on osteoporosis treatment.   

DanSIC is hosted by the Molecular Bone Histology (MBH) lab headed by Professor Thomas L.G. Andersen. MBH lab had the overarching aim of facilitating a better understanding of bone and bone diseases, as well as their treatment. DanSIC mission is to advance the field of spatial biology through innovative imaging technologies and bioinformatics, in order to provide cutting-edge solutions that enable researchers to explore complex biological systems at unprecedented resolutions while maintaining the spatial context. DanSIC is also part of CellX – The Danish Single Cell Examination platform including a community focusing on spatial bioinformatics.

Research tasks 

The position as a research assistant or postdoc across CIMP-DanSIC, you will play a crucial role in analyzing and interpreting large-scale spatial transcriptomic data from multiple clinical trial. You will collaborate with an interdisciplinary teams of scientists and clinicians to develop bioinformatics pipelines and tools that facilitate the understanding of spatial profiling in clinical samples. You will work with datasets from our Xenium High-plex Single-cell Spatial Profiling (HSSP) from 10x Genomics and GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiling from NanoString Bruker platforms with plans to expand to additional spatial technologies. Our research projects span various fields and your expertise will contribute to groundbreaking research in osteoporosis, breast cancer, multiple sclerosis and diseases.

The spatial bioinformatician will be responsible for:

• Develop, implement and maintain spatial bioinformatic pipelines for the spatial profiling within DanSIC and CIMP.
• Collaborate with internal and external researchers to design experiments and analyze complex datasets.
• Perform statistical analyses and data visualization to interpret and publish complex datasets.
• Integrate the spatial bioinformatic in our multiomic pipelines within CIMP. 
• Prepare reports, presentations and manuscripts to communicate with scientific peers.
• Stay current with advancements in spatial bioinformatics.
• Assist with the epigenetic analysis performed within CIMP and MBH lab.

What we offer

• Opportunity to become a leading-edge expert in spatial bioinformatic, being at the frontline of the rapid developing field of spatial omics.
• Opportunities for professional development and career advancement.
• A collaborative work environment with numerous partners.
• Access to state-of-the-art spatial omics technologies and resources.
• The chance to contribute to impactful research that advances our understanding of overtreatment.

Expectations of qualifications 

The applicant who is hired must have a master’s degree (if he/she applies for a position as research assistant) or a master’s and Ph.D. degree (if he/she applies for a position as a postdoc) in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, or documented research experience in a related field. The applicant should have experience in one or more of the areas/fields mentioned below 

• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python or R.
• Experience with bioinformatics tools and software for data analysis (e.g. Seura