Open positions in the CBIO lab

There are a couple of opportunities to join the CBIO lab in 2022.

Applied multi-omics integration

The HYGIEIA project is a large collaboration on the biomedical campus in Brussels. The PIs on the project are Prof Laure Elens from the Louvain Drug Research Institute (LDRI), Prof Jean-Luc Balligand from the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Research (IREC), myself from the de Duve Institute, Prof Jean Cyr Yombi and Prof Leïla Belkhir, both clinicians at the infectious disease department at the university hospital and Prof Sébastien Jodogne from the Louvain Engineering School (EPL). The goal is to implement a complete multi-omics network systems medicine facilty, from patient samples, sample tracking, data production, analysis and interpretation. The data production is handled by our local core facilities and include proteomics, metabolomics and genomics. This applied project is both technically challenging and exciting and provides a unique opportunity to build such a facility from grounds up. There are two positions bound to my research group here:

• A computer scientist position that will, in collaboration with Sébastian Jodoigne and the wet lab team, model and build the IT infrastructure to track patients, samples and data. More details here.

• A bioinformatics scientist to implement the multi-omics data processing and integration pipelines.

Both of these positions are initially funded for 1 year, renewable once, thanks to the 2.7M euros seed fund of the Sofina solidarity fund. We are anticipating additional funding to extend these positions.

Spatial proteomics and post-translational modifications

• As part of the Protein Contours project, I am also looking for an early career researcher focusing on spatial proteomics, post-translational modification and machine learning (see the pRoloc package and these papers for some background). The Protein Contours project is funded by the FWO and is in collaboration with Win Vranken from the VUB and Lennart Martens from Gent University. The funding is for 1 to 2 years. Depending on the candidate’s goals and background, there exist opportunities to extend the funding beyond.

What to expect

The CBIO lab is hosted at the de Duve Institue in Brussels since September 2018. The lab is fortunate to have a group of dedicated and talented members with diverse backgrounds and skills: currently we have two master students with a biomedical background, one master student from engineering, three PhD students (with backgrounds in biotechnology, engineering and stats, and biomedical research and bioinformatics) and two post-doctoral researchers (with PhD in biomedical sciences and statistics). The lab also hosts the bioinformatics core facility.

We tackle a wide range of omics data and applications, either through collaborations or generating our own data, and put a lot of emphasis on scientific software engineering, notably through the Bioconductor project. Open and reproducible research is central in the lab: all software are publicly available under permissive licenses, all our publications are published as pre-prints, and we work hard to make our efforts reproducible.

The lab supports a friendly and supportive work environment through flexible working hours (for example for your young parents) and the possibility for work from home. The lab meetings are typically scheduled in-person (or mixed remote/in-person if anyone can’t join) to favour interactions among lab members.

Interested in applying?

All positions are open PhD or MSc (depending on experience) in computer science, bioinformatics or other relevant disciplines. Feel free to contact me by email or over twitter for further questions.

If you would like to apply, please send an email (at first.last<AT>uclouvain<DOT>be), specifying which position you are interested in, and provide

• a letter of motivation (1 page is enough, but be specific);
• a CV with pre-prints and publications (if any), software and data analysis projects and education;
• the name and contact details of two academic or professional references, explaining in what capacity these references know you.

In your application, please make sure you highlight why you are keen to apply for a specific position and how you are a good fit. For instance, the HYGIEIA bioinformatics position requires experience in omics data processing and pipeline automation - make sure you demonstrate such an experience with example code and data. If referring to a paper or pre-print, be explicit on you specific contributions and how these are relevant for the position. I am more interested in reading some of your open source code rather than being pointed to a handful of papers.