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Assistant Project Scientist

Position overview

Position title: Assistant Project Scientist
Salary range: A reasonable salary range estimate for this position is $90,500-$113,900.

The posted UC academic salary scales set the minimum pay determined by rank and/or step at appointment. See the following table for the salary scale for this position
https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/_files/2022-23/july-2022-salary-scales/t38-b.pdf

Application Window

Open date: March 27, 2024

Next review date: Friday, May 10, 2024 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)
Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.

Final date: Wednesday, Mar 26, 2025 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)
Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

Position description

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering at UC San Diego (https://cse.ucsd.edu/) seeks a candidate for the position of Project Scientist (non-tenured Assistant) in the broad area of computational cancer genomics. The project scientist will lead the development of methods for exploring focal amplifications in cancer genomes in the Center for Precision Genomics, and to interface with members of team eDyNAmiC, an interdisciplinary group investigating the
occurrence and properties of extrachromosomal DNA in cancer.

The Center for Precision Genomics laboratory is housed in the Franklin Antonio Hall of the Jacobs School of Engineering, houses 5 principal investigators and 50+ research staff analyzing data from a multitude of advanced genomic technologies. Team eDyNAmiC had identified ecDNA as a dominant mechanism of oncogene amplification in cancer. To aid that effort, the Bafna and Mesirov laboratories are developing technologies for identifying ecDNA from genome sequencing data. Specifically, they have developed the Amplicon Suite pipeline for identifying ecDNA, which has been used to analyze over 30,000 genomes (1.5 Petabyte of data),
across many cancer subtypes. They have also developed the Amplicon Repository, a community editable resource for archiving and retrieving information on ecDNA in cancer cells. The selected candidate will contribute to and support the laboratory’s research mission of ecDNA analysis. They will collaborate with scientists in launching large scale computational experiments that utilize AmpliconSuite and Amplicon Repository, will lead a group of software engineers to enable new developments and updates to these software tools. They will guide graduate student researchers in ensuring that prototypes of their algorithms and software are
programmed to best practices, and eventually incorporated into the AmpliconSuite pipelines.
https://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/release/3495?id=3495

Finally, they will assist PIs Bafna and Mesirov in collecting data and in writing future grant applications, and manuscripts.

At UC San Diego, Project scientists are academic researchers who are expected to make significant and creative contributions to a research program. They are not required to carry out independent research or develop an independent research program but are expected to engage in creative research and publication under a faculty member’s supervision associated with the Center.

Qualifications

Basic qualifications (required at time of application)

The successful candidate must have the following skills

  1. Ph.D. in a relevant field (Computer Science or Bioinformatics) with at least 2 years of postdoctoral experience working in cancer genomics.

Application Requirements

Document requirements
  • Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V.

  • Cover Letter

  • Statement of Research

  • Statement of Contributions to Diversity - Applicants should summarize their past or potential contributions to diversity. See our Faculty Equity site for more information.

  • Misc / Additional (Optional)

Reference requirements
  • 2-4 letters of reference required
Apply link: https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF03944

Help contact: ehembrough@ucsd.edu

About UC San Diego

The University of California, San Diego is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer advancing inclusive excellence. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, covered veteran status, or other protected categories covered by the UC nondiscrimination policy.

As a University employee, you will be required to comply with all applicable University policies and/or collective bargaining agreements, as may be amended from time to time. Federal, state, or local government directives may impose additional requirements.

The University of California prohibits smoking and tobacco use at all University controlled properties.

The UC San Diego Annual Security & Fire Safety Report is available online at: https://www.police.ucsd.edu/docs/annualclery.pdf. This report provides crime and fire statistics, as well as institutional policy statement & procedures. Contact the UC San Diego Police Department at (858) 534-4361 if you want to obtain paper copies of this report.

Job location

La Jolla, CA