Postdoctoral Associate in Translational Biology

The Cardiology and Critical Care Research Program (C₃RP) at the Robarts Research Institute is located on the Western University campus and is connected to the London Health Sciences Center (LHSC). Under the supervision of two principal investigators (Dr. Aleks Leligdowicz and Dr. Mark Chandy), the laboratory employs novel multi-“omic” techniques to study biological samples from patients to understand disease mechanisms of early infection during critical illness and cardiovascular disease.

The main pillars of research are: (1)  the influence of innate and adaptive immune regulation and endothelial injury on outcomes in critical illness, and (2) the impact of environmental factors on the development of cardiovascular disease using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). Advanced cell culture and gene editing in conjunction with imaging techniques (flow cytometry, microscopy), functional biological assays, and RNA-sequencing are used to address these research goals.

Our lab is seeking a talented and highly motivated postdoctoral associate with expertise in large-scale statistical analyses of clinical data and their integration with complex biological studies. Biological data types include RNA-Sequencing, cell imaging (flow cytometry, microscopy), proteomics, and clinical trial analysis.

The successful candidate will interact with local, national, and international experts in clinical bioinformatics, contribute to manuscript and grant preparation, and engage in supporting our research trainees.

Integration of multi-omic biological study data sets (proteomics from O-link; bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing; functional cellular assays including multicolour flow cytometry, and microbiome analysis) with complex clinical variables (pre and peri-admission patient and treatment variables from observational cohort studies and clinical trials) to identify latent classes of treatment responsive patient subgroups and identify heterogeneity of treatment effect in complex patient populations. Pathologies studied will include septic shock, status epilepticus, cardiac arrest, and cardiovascular complications of cannabis derivative use. 

The successful candidate will have:

• Completed a PhD within the past 3 years
• Excellent understanding of applied statistics
• Exceptional knowledge of coding and data analysis in R and Python
• Experience with analyzing human and bacterial RNA sequencing data
• Experience with flow-cytometry
• Strong understanding of cardiovascular disease, immunology, and microbiology
• High-level understanding of clinical syndromes (sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome [ARDS], neurocognitive outcomes, and cardiovascular disease)
• Proficiency in the English language, including manuscript, and grant preparation