Data Scientist​/Senior Data Scientist

Data Scientist/Senior Data Scientist - P Znamenskiy lab

Reporting to: Petr Znamenskiy, Group Leader (The Francis Crick Institute)

Contact term: This is a full-time, fixed term (3-year) position on Crick terms and conditions of employment.

The Francis Crick Institute is Europe’s largest biomedical research institute under one roof. Our world-class scientists and staff collaborate on vital research to help prevent, diagnose and treat illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, infectious diseases and neurodegenerative conditions.

The Crick is a place for collaboration, innovation and exploration across many disciplines. A space where the brightest minds can pursue big and bold ideas and discover answers to crucial scientific questions. We support them in a dynamic environment which fosters excellence with state-of-the-art infrastructure, cutting-edge facilities, and a creative and curious culture. We’ve removed traditional boundaries of departments, divisions and disciplines and instead have an open approach that supports every researcher.

This gives us the freedom to take risks and carry out high‑quality, pioneering research. Creating a space for discovery without boundaries helps us to turn our science into benefits for human health and the economy.

The Znamenskiy lab studies the relationship between the in vivo function, synaptic organization, and molecular identity of cortical neurons. We aim to understand how connections between different neuronal cell types are organized and how this organization enables the computations they perform. To do this, we combine approaches from systems and molecular neuroscience and develop new tools to relate gene expression and connectivity with the activity of cortical neurons.

The brain contains 100s to 1000s of different types of neurons. To understand how this astonishing cell type diversity supports brain function, we have developed new methods that allow us to measure in vivo functional properties, gene expression profiles and connectivity in the same neurons. Analysing the resulting datasets poses a significant computational challenge.

As a Data Scientist in the lab, you will design, develop, and maintain robust computational pipelines for the analysis and integration of large-scale, multimodal datasets, including spatial transcriptomics, in vivo calcium imaging, and molecular connectomics. Working across several projects, you will enable high-quality, reproducible analysis and help translate complex data into biological insight at the interface of systems and molecular neuroscience.

You will play a central, highly collaborative role within the lab, acting as the primary point of contact for computational support. This includes advising and supporting lab members on data analysis, troubleshooting analytical challenges, and ensuring best practices in scientific coding and workflow development are shared and adopted across projects.

We are seeking a collaborative data scientist with strong experience in scientific programming in Python, and a genuine interest in supporting others while building scalable, well-designed analysis pipelines. This role is ideal for someone with a background in neuroscience or computational data science who wants to remain close to cutting‑edge research and unique datasets, without pursuing an independent research track, while making a meaningful and lasting contribution to a dynamic scientific environment.

Typical activities include:

• Key projects and data modalities:
  • Spatial transcriptomics data generated from a custom-built automated in situ sequencing microscopes
  • In vivo multiphoton calcium imaging data
  • Registration and integration of spatial transcriptomics and in vivo imaging data
• Optimise and maintain data analysis pipelines
• Refine algorithms for image registration, cell segmentation, source separation etc.
• Develop quality control metrics for experimental data
• Document analysis pipelines to make them accessible to users within and outside the Znamenskiy lab
• Support and train users in applying the analysis pipelines
• Provide training and support to lab members in coding and data analysis and act…