Computational Research Scientist, Simmons Cancer Center

The laboratory of Dr. Jaehyuk Choi, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Center for Cellular Therapies and Cancer Immunology in the Harold

C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern is seeking a Computational Research Scientist to lead machine-learning efforts that identify novel therapeutic targets and guide the engineering of next-generation immunotherapies for cancer.

The Center for Cellular Therapies and Cancer Immunology in the Harold

C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center is looking to hire a Computational Research Scientist at the interface of machine learning, cancer genomics, and immunology. You will build and apply computational methods that turn large-scale multi-omic and functional datasets into validated therapeutic hypotheses, while working side by side with experimental and translational scientists to bring those hypotheses to the clinic.

This is a senior, high-autonomy position suited to someone who wants their models to drive biological discovery to therapies. You will help set scientific direction, mentor junior computational and experimental scientists, and serve as the analytical backbone of a program developing novel immunotherapies within a new center.

• Build predictive models that integrate genomic, transcriptomic, epigenomic, single-cell, and functional-screen data to nominate novel therapeutic targets in cancer and the tumor immune microenvironment.
• Drive immunotherapy engineering by applying machine learning to antigen and neoantigen discovery, de novo protein design, and the optimization of engineered immune cells.
• Develop methods for interpreting high-dimensional and perturbation data, including deep learning approaches to sequence, structure, and single-cell readouts.
• Partner closely with wet-lab scientists to design experiments, prioritize candidates for validation, and iterate rapidly between computation and the bench.
• Lead and mentor trainees and staff, set analytical standards, and help shape the scientific roadmap of the program.
• Communicate results through high-impact publications, presentations, and collaborations across UT Southwestern’s research and clinical community.

Depending on your interests and strengths, your work can center on identifying novel cancer immunotherapy targets and/or developing novel therapeutics. Approaches may include:

• Machine learning applied to multi-omic, single-cell, and functional data
• Clinical–molecular correlations that link genotype and tumor biology to therapeutic response
• De novo protein design
• Computational proteomics

• Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Biomedical Engineering, or related field
• Master’s degree in computer science, Electrical Engineering, or related field

• 2 years experience in driving computational biology/machine learning projects.
• 4 years experience in driving computational biology/machine learning projects with Master's Degree.
• Post-doctoral fellowship preferred.

The Choi Laboratory is led by Jaehyuk Choi, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Center for Cellular Therapies and Cancer Immunology and Professor in the Harold

C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern (with an appointment in Dermatology). As director of a newly formed center within an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center, Dr. Choi leads a growing, well-resourced program at the intersection of cancer genomics, immunology, and cell therapy, and is actively building the team to match that ambition.

The lab’s research falls into two complementary thrusts, precision medicine and immune engineering, both aimed at understanding the genetic basis of cancer and turning that understanding into new therapies. Findings have been published in Nature, Nature Cancer, Blood, and other leading journals.

The heart of the lab’s work: using genomics and computation to define the molecular bases of cancer, with a deep focus on T-cell malignancies, and to translate those insights directly into the clinic. The lab has identified the driver mutations and recurrent, targetable alterations that shape these diseases (for example, alterations in the…