Associate Research Scientist: One Health Bioinformatics and Molecular Diagnostics

Associate Research Scientist:
One Health Bioinformatics and Molecular Diagnostics

Texas A&M Agri Life

Research Department Animal Science

Commensurate

College Station, Texas

Staff

Texas A&M Agri Life is comprised of the following Texas A&M University System members:
Texas A&M Agri Life Extension Service Texas A&M Agri Life Research College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University Texas A&M Forest Service Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory As the nation’s largest most comprehensive agriculture program, Texas A&M Agri Life brings together a college and four state agencies focused on agriculture and life sciences within The Texas A&M University System.

With over 5,000 employees and a presence in every county across the state, Texas A&M Agri Life is uniquely positioned to improve lives, environments and the Texas economy through education, research, extension and service.

Job Summary:

The Associate Research Scientist will lead the laboratory's bioinformatics and molecular diagnostics program. The incumbent will develop and validate sequencing and PCR based detection methods for pathogens, parasites, vectors, and antimicrobial resistance determinants; build reproducible pipelines for amplicon, metagenomic, and whole genome data from short read and long read platforms; and translate results into surveillance outputs for research sponsors and agency partners.

This is a staff scientist position with defined ownership of the laboratory's diagnostic and computational workflows. The incumbent is expected to lead publications, contribute to grant proposals, and provide technical guidance to students and staff.

• Research Leads the development and validation of molecular detection assays (qPCR, digital PCR, and targeted sequencing) for One Health surveillance, including primer and probe design, in silico specificity screening, and determination of limit of detection, analytical sensitivity and specificity, and repeatability.
• Designs and conducts amplicon, metabarcoding, and shotgun metagenomic sequencing studies on Illumina and Oxford Nanopore platforms across animal, food, and environmental sample types.
• Builds, documents, and maintains reproducible bioinformatics pipelines for read processing, taxonomic classification, genome assembly and annotation, antimicrobial resistance gene detection, and phylogenetic analysis on Linux high performance computing systems.
• Curates reference sequence databases and benchmarks pipeline performance using mock communities, reference materials, and cross platform comparisons.
• Manages sequencing data, metadata, and analysis code under the laboratory data management policy and FAIR principles, including version control and deposition in public repositories.
• Integrates molecular results with spatial, temporal, and epidemiological surveillance data to provide decision support for research sponsors and agency partners.
• Prepares manuscripts as lead or contributing author and drafts methods, preliminary data, and figures for federal, state, and industry proposals.
• Coordinates sample logistics, data sharing, and joint analyses with federal, national laboratory, and university collaborators.
• Maintains biosafety, contamination control, and sample tracking standards; assists with the preparation, organization, and cleaning of the laboratory worksite.

Trains graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, undergraduate researchers, and laboratory staff in sequence analysis, assay design and validation, and sequencing library preparation. Reviews student analyses and drafts and helps troubleshoot computational and wet laboratory…