Research Assistant in bioinformatics

About Us

Dr. Robert Knight and Dr. Heba Sailem at King's College London are looking for a research assistant with computational expertise to join their team in a multidisciplinary project funded by the Vivensa Foundation.

The post will be based between the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Centre for Craniofacial & Regenerative Biology in the heart of London. Research in Dr. Sailem's group includes development of advanced AI and visualisation tools for multimodal imaging data. Dr. Knight applies advanced microscopy and molecular profiling methods to investigate cell and tissue biology in the context of regeneration and homeostasis.

We welcome applications from candidates with appropriate computational expertise who are keen to build solutions for analysing biological data generated in the project. Research staff training and development is actively supported at King's through the action plan for the Concordat for Research Staff.

We are looking for candidates with experience of building and applying computational tools for analysing bioimaging data, RNA-sequencing data and spatial transcriptomics data. Candidates should have proficiency in writing and implementing Python scripts, have experience of working with a variety of machine learning and AI models, be aware of safe and trusted research practice and be comfortable working with experimental datasets.

This Vivensa Foundation funded project aims to identify candidate causal factors driving impaired muscle repair and homeostasis in ageing. The post holder would work in a team with a postdoctoral researcher who is generating datasets by live imaging of cells in zebrafish, RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics. The role of the research assistant is to create AI models for i) classifying cell behaviour from imaging datasets of cells, ii) for analysis of RNA-sequencing datasets from multiple species, and iii) to analyse spatial transcriptomics datasets for predicting molecular signalling between cells.

The appointee will be responsible to Dr. Heba Sailem (line manager) and Dr. Robert Knight (project lead). They will attend regular group meetings and team meetings to discuss and plan project progress. Candidates should have a solid research track record, be committed to the project and keen to work in a multidisciplinary team.

This is a full time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract for one year ending no later than 31/01/2028.

Research staff at King's are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers , applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade
7. Visit the Centre for Research Staff Development for more information.

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

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