Research Fellow

Position: RESEARCH FELLOW
Mission Statement

Michigan Medicine improves the health of patients, populations and communities through excellence in education, patient care, community service, research and technology development, and through leadership activities in Michigan, nationally and internationally. Our mission is guided by our Strategic Principles and has three critical components; patient care, education and research that together enhance our contribution to society.

Job Summary

The Parolia Laboratory at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellow in Computational Biology. This is a limited-term position with an initial appointment of two years, renewable annually based on satisfactory performance. The position offers a rich training environment at the intersection of cancer genomics, chromatin biology, and transcriptional regulation, with a focus on prostate cancer and Ewing sarcoma.

The successful candidate will be embedded in a highly collaborative and fast-paced research group, contributing both to independent computational projects and to the broader analytical needs of ongoing experimental programs. The fellow will be directly trained and supervised by Dr. Eleanor Young, Senior Computational Scientist, and will report to Dr. Abhijit Parolia, Principal Investigator.

The ideal candidate would thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative research environment and would be equally comfortable driving an independent research agenda as they are providing analytical support to collaborative projects. They would be intellectually curious, scientifically rigorous, and motivated by the translational potential of cancer genomics research. Strong communication skills - both written and verbal - and a genuine enthusiasm for mentorship and teamwork are highly valued.

Responsibilities
* This position is offered for a two-to-three-year term, renewed on an annual basis contingent on performance. Over this period, the fellow is expected to:

* Lead and contribute to at least one first-author publication arising from independent computational project work

* Provide analytical support to wet-lab and computational team members across ongoing projects, including data processing, quality control, normalization, and statistical analysis

* Lead the design and execution of computational analyses for a primary research project focused on large-scale patient genomic data, with particular emphasis on single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) datasets from human prostate cancer atlases

* Develop, implement, and maintain reproducible bioinformatic pipelines for multi-omic data types including scRNA-seq, ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq, and bulk RNA-seq

* Present research findings at internal lab meetings and maintain detailed records

* Contribute to the establishment of best practices in data management, version control, and computational reproducibility.

Required Qualifications
* * PhD in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Biostatistics, Computer Science, or a closely related field (degree conferred prior to start date)

* Demonstrated proficiency in R and/or Python for genomic data analysis

* Experience with next-generation sequencing data analysis (RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq, or equivalent)

* Ability to work independently and manage multiple projects simultaneously in a dynamic research environment

* Must be pursuing advanced scientific or scholarly training, which may be in a clinical setting but is outside of the traditional clinical service and does not involve direct patient care.

Desired Qualifications
* * Experience with single-cell RNA-seq or multiome (RNA+ATAC) analysis frameworks (e.g., Seurat, Scanpy, ArchR, Signac)

* Familiarity with cancer genomics datasets and publicly available resources (TCGA, GEO, cBioPortal)

* Experience with high-performance computing environments (SLURM, AWS, or equivalent)

* Prior involvement in grant writing or manuscript preparation

* Background in chromatin biology, transcription factor biology, or cancer genomics

Why Join Michigan Medicine?

Michigan Medicine is one of the largest health care complexes in the world and has been the site of many groundbreaking medical and technological…