Postdoctoral Researcher in Bioinformatics at FHML-NUTRIM-BioInformatics/BiGCaT

A technical postdoctoral position within the Department of Bioinformatics at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. The main responsibility is to develop methods that support molecular data analysis and application of integrative systems biology approaches. This builds on data science and includes the development and implementation in workflows of interoperability tools that support mappings between different entities in related biomolecular databases and for instance between related ontology terms from different ontologies. Detailed documentation of the work and publication of the results is expected. The candidate will be involved in European projects (especially the IMI project FAIRPlus) and interact with a diverse team of international researchers within and outside Maastricht University. Specific projects will be discussed during the interview, but the successful candidate has to be prepared to adapt with flexibility as new projects become available. The candidate will contribute to grant writing activities to bring funding to the lab and take on educational roles at Maastricht University.
 

We are seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher:

• who holds, or shortly expects to obtain, a PhD in a field that has given him/her hands-on knowledge of biomedical data analysis and software development,

• with proficiency in coding/scripting and experience with project management for software projects (version control, issue trackers, documentation, integrated testing),

• ideally has experience in ontology development, cheminformatics, data integration, and/or systems biology (pathway and network analysis),

• has  a proven interest and demonstrable affinity with leading open science projects,

• is keen to learn and involve him/herself in the ongoing research at an interdisciplinary and international department.

• is proficient at organising and writing scientific documents describing your work.

• has proven organisational skills and professional behaviour and is ready to take over administrative and educational tasks.

We offer a full-time, one-year term position, with the possibility of renewal for up to three more years depending on the availability of funding and the performance. Yearly evaluations will take place. Salary range from € 2709,- to € 4978,- gross per month (pay scale 10/11 in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities). 

Maastricht University offers an attractive benefits package with additional holiday (8%) and end-of-year bonuses (8.3%), training, and career development. Candidates from outside the Netherlands may be eligible for a substantial tax break. For more information: UM employees.

Maastricht University is renowned for its unique, innovative, problem-based learning system, which is characterized by a small-scale and student-oriented approach. Research at UM is characterized by a multidisciplinary and thematic approach, and is concentrated in research institutes and schools. Maastricht University has around 18,000 students and 4,300 employees. Reflecting the university's strong international profile, a fair amount of both students and staff are from abroad. The university hosts 6 faculties: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Law, School of Business and Economics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience.

The Department of Bioinformatics-BiGCaT is part of NUTRIM School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences. It was founded in 2001 by Prof. dr. Chris Evelo aiming at employing bioinformatics approaches in systems biology to integrate experimental data and data with current knowledge. Integrative Systems Biology is being developed and applied in various research fields. The department has four core research areas; 1) metabolic diseases, 2) micronutrients, 3) toxicity and risk assessment and 4) rare diseases. Within these areas, different types of data, like transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and (epi)genomics data, are integrated and combined with existing knowledge.

Chris Evelo’s BiGCaT group is involved in (inter)national initiatives to collect, share and integrate biological data. Moreover, in order to perform data analysis in a state-of-the-art manner, novel methods and tools are being developed. These include i) high-throughput data analysis pipelines, ii) semantic Web tools using RDF, ontologies and SPARQL, iii) cheminformatics software, iv) structuring and collecting biological processes in WikiPathways, v) pathway analysis in PathVisio and vi) network analysis in Cytoscape.