Cryo-EM & ML Research Scientist: 3D Structure Discovery

Insta Deep is looking for a Research Scientist to join our team working at the intersection of machine learning (ML) and cryo-electron microscopy and tomography (Cryo-EM/ET). The determination and study of 3D molecular structures can offer fundamental insights into the mechanisms that govern most cellular functions. In this regard Cryo-EM and ET are powerful tools for determining high-resolution structures of biomolecules in near native state.

As these imaging techniques generate significant raw data, machine learning has great potential to accelerate and improve many stages of the processing pipeline; from particle picking and annotation, to reconstruction of 3D electron density maps from 2D images, modelling conformal heterogeneity of the imaged particles and, ultimately, generating atomistic structures with angstrom-level resolution.

As a Research Scientist, you will collaborate with other members of the BioAI and Research departments, as well as strategic partners such as BioNTech, to advance our understanding of structural biology with ML. You will bring experience Cryo-EM and ET and play a key role in both developing fundamental research and bringing these technologies to real-world applications.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate within in-house and external experts in computational and structural biology, and machine-learning, to implement, develop and test new technologies.
• Use established tools and databases to build, explore and analyse biological datasets and systems
• Contribute to the design and implementation of models, tools and libraries to accelerate our research efforts.
• Report and present experimental results and research findings clearly and effectively, both internally and externally, verbally and in writing.
• Contribute to the team's publication efforts.

Requirements

• S./PhD in Computational Biology, Machine Learning or a related scientific field.
• Experience with structure resolution in cryo-EM or ET.
• Proficient in writing clean and maintainable code in Python.
• Excellent communication skills and collaborative spirit.

Desirables

• Individuals in this role are expected to be accomplished in computational biology or machine learning.
• Experience using a deep learning frameworks like PyTorch, Tensorflow and/or Jax.
• Experience with any of the following biological topics would be a plus;
  Cryo-EM/ET data analysis: denoising, filtering, segmentation;
  Experience working with large biological datasets, databases (EMPIAR, PDB, Uniprot, etc.) and their API technologies;
  Molecular dynamics;
  Structural biology
• Demonstrated ability to contribute to novel research efforts; such as publications at leading life science or ML venues.