Computational Biologist

https://www.chumontreal.qc.ca/en/emplois/postdoctoral-fellowresearch-associate-chum-microbiome-centre-dr-bertrand-routy-and-dr

The CHUM Microbiome Centre led by Drs. Bertrand Routy and Dr. Arielle Elkrief are looking for a postdoctoral or associate level research candidate in bioinformatics and computational oncology to analyze microbiome samples sequenced by metagenomics.

The team currently leads several prospective clinical studies (NCT04951583, NCT05303493 and NCT05805319) testing different strategies, including fecal transplantation, prebiotics, probiotics and diet, to improve the composition of the microbiome for patients with lung cancer and melanoma treated with immunotherapy.

The specific role of the candidate will be to perform computational analyses on samples from various pan-Canadian randomized clinical trials evaluating the evolution of the microbiome before and after the different treatments and over time. In addition, she/he will have to supervise students at MSc and PhD levels in bioinformatics.

Our team recently received a large $3,800,000 grant to conduct one of the largest randomized clinical trials in the world to study FMT plus immunotherapy. The candidate will successfully integrate longitudinal multiomics analysis to understand the mechanism of FMT.

Responsibilities 

• Perform bioinformatics analyses using fecal metagenomics sequencing data and 16S rRNA data (human and murine).
• Understand the evolution of the microbiome over time before and after treatment from different clinical studies including fecal transplant, prebiotic, probiotic and diet.
• Analyze metabolomics data from serum, stools, tumors.
• Use prediction algorithms to identify biomarkers from stool sequencing data.
• Multi-omics representation to integrate metagenomics, metabolomics and NGS sequencing data of tumors.
• Co-supervise 2-4 master’s to PhD level students to help them with their microbiome analyses in different projects.

Qualifications

• A Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. in bioinformatics, computational biology, microbiology, or in a related field with expertise in microbiome analysis
• Experience with microbiome sequencing analyses including 16S rRNA sequencing and shotgun metagenomic sequencing
• Proficiency in R or python and command-line programming languages