Genetic Statistician

Senior, Intermediate and Junior positions available

Salary: £24,049-£47,314

Unit: Department of Public Health and Primary Care

*Limited Funding

PLEASE NOTE: previous candidates need not apply.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an ambitious and talented statistician, with an interest in genetics, to join an interdisciplinary team working on large-scale genetic studies of cardiovascular disease at the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. The Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit (CEU) conducts world-leading interdisciplinary research into the prediction and prevention of cardiovascular disease, with a portfolio of studies that comprises >2.5 million participants and is currently, expanding into genetics. Professor John Danesh is the Unit’s overall Director, Professor Simon Thompson is the Unit’s Director of Research in Biostatistics and Dr Jo Howson leads statistical genetics.

The post holder will be expected to design and implement analyses of genetic datasets from large consortia in relation to cardiovascular disease and its risk factors. Specific examples of these analyses include (but are not limited to):

- analyses of common, low-frequency and rare variants in population-based studies of discrete and quantitative traits;

- fine-mapping and multi-marker tests to locate causal variants;

- pathway analysis using rare and common variants;

- integration of genetic data with biochemical factors for the assessment of causality (“Mendelian Randomisation”);

The post holder will also be expected to advise on appropriate statistical practices, and test and develop the statistical methods necessary to evaluate hypotheses of interest, such as those listed above. The work of the post holder is expected to lead to high-impact publications.

The post-holder will have: (1) relevant qualifications e.g,, a postgraduate degree in statistics, biostatistics, genetic epidemiology or similar, (2) a sound understanding of statistical concepts, ideally in relation to chronic disease epidemiology (3) strong quantitative skills, including experience of using relevant statistical software (STATA, R), (4) high level report writing and presentational skills, (5) a working knowledge of genetics is desirable but not essential. The post-holder should also be able to work independently, accurately judge priorities, and have excellent organisational and communication skills.

This position can be filled by an appropriate candidate at Senior Research Associate, Research Associate or Research Assistant level, depending on relevant qualifications and experience. Senior Research Associate is awarded on the basis of individual merit and may be awarded to the successful candidate if approved by the Faculty Board of the Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine.

Further Particulars are available here

Formal applications consisting of a covering letter, CV and a completed CHRIS 6 form, parts 1 and 3 only to be completed (available from http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/hr/forms/chris6/) should be sent, preferably by email to Lynette Watson (phpc.admin@medschl.cam.ac.uk) or by post to Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Strangeways Research Laboratory, Worts Causeway, Cambridge CB1 8RN.

Your cover letter should describe how you meet the person specification for the role.

Informal enquiries can be made to Dr Jo Howson by email (jmmh2@medschl.cam.ac.uk) or telephone + 44 (0) 1223 740078.

Location of post: Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Strangeways Research Laboratory, Worts Causeway, Cambridge, CB1 8RN

ALL APPLICATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 5PM ON THE CLOSING DATE

*The funds for these posts are available until 31 December 2015 in the first instance.

Please quote reference RH01195 on all correspondence about this post.

Closing date: Friday 7 June.

Interview Date(s): w/c 24 June 2013

PhD studentship in Cardiovascular Epidemiology

3-year PhD studentship in Cardiovascular Epidemiology at the Pfizer-Cambridge University Translational Centre for Cardiovascular Research

Exciting new project based in one of Europe’s leading academic departments of population health sciences and one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies.

Applications are invited from UK/EU nationals* for a PhD studentship hosted at the new Pfizer-Cambridge University Translational Centre for Cardiovascular Research. This prestigious studentship, which is co-funded by the Medical Research Council and Pfizer, will commence in October 2013. The successful candidate will undertake a 3-year PhD research project, working closely with both University and Pfizer scientists. This programme offers a unique opportunity to relate the PhD research to drug development in a real world setting. It also allows the successful candidate to deepen their understanding of the many challenges involved in the development of a new medicine.

The project will advance understanding of the potential causal relevance of novel and emerging risk markers to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases The student will have the opportunity to develop a range of skills, including statistical analysis of large-scale epidemiological datasets, genetic and biomarker epidemiology and integration of multidisciplinary datasets. Prospective applicants with strong quantitative skills are particularly encouraged.

Applicants will require a Masters degree in a related subject (eg, Epidemiology, Public Health, Human Genetics etc). Support includes a generous annual MRC/Pfizer stipend, fees at UK/EU student rate, research expenses and some travel costs.

Location: Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Strangeways Research Laboratory, Worts Causeway, Cambridge, CB1 8RN

*Before applying, please check your eligibility under MRC residency requirements: http://tinyurl.com/8bjyrm

Download an application form here.

To apply please send your CV, a cover letter and the above application form, preferably by email to Lynette Watson (phpc.admin@medschl.cam.ac.uk) or by post to Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Strangeways Research Laboratory, Worts Causeway, Cambridge CB1 8RN.

For further information contact Adam Butterworth at asb38@medschl.cam.ac.uk

ALL APPLICATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 5PM ON THE CLOSING DATE

Closing date: 31 May 2013

Please quote RH01192 on your application and all correspondence about this vacancy

Data Manager – Electronic Health Records

Research Associate or Research Assistant

Salary: £24,049 – £36,298

Unit: Department of Public Health and Primary Care

*Limited Funding

The Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit (CEU) conducts world-leading interdisciplinary research into the prediction and prevention of cardiovascular disease, with a portfolio of studies that comprises >2.5 million participants.

Professor John Danesh is the Unit’s overall Director and Professor Simon Thompson is the Unit’s Director of Research in Biostatistics.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a specialist data manager interested in developing expertise in the linkage and exploitation of electronic health records involving world-leading large-scale population health studies. This position can be filled at either Research Associate or Research Assistant level depending on relevant qualifications and experience.

The main responsibility of this role will be to maintain complex databases for epidemiological studies, in particular health records information. The post-holder will support Principal Investigators who are looking to develop methods for tracking the future health of study participants through health record linkage. For example, in the NHSBT Blood Donors Cohort comprising up to 50,000 English blood donors, we are seeking to establish electronic health record linkage to study the impact of blood donation on future health outcomes.

The post holder will be required to collate, clean, and harmonise data from various sources, perform some analyses for QC purposes, as well as to help identify scientific priorities and contribute to some applied analyses.

The post-holder will have: (1) relevant degree or post graduate qualification (preferably in mathematics, science or computing based disciplines), (2) experience of using statistical packages such as SAS, STATA or SPSS (or experience with other equivalent statistical software), (3) experience of programming, preferably in a structured programming language such as SAS or JAVA, (4) high level report writing and presentational skills. The post-holder should also be able to work independently, accurately judge priorities and have a systematic and rigorous approach to work with excellent organisational and communication skills.

Location of post: Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Strangeways Research Laboratory, Worts Causeway, Cambridge, CB1 8RN

Further Particulars area available here

Your cover letter should describe how you meet the person specification for the role.

Informal enquiries can be made to Dr Emanuele Di Angelantonio by email (ed303@medschl.cam.ac.uk) or telephone + 44 (0) 1223 741302.

ALL APPLICATIONS ARE DUE BY 5PM ON THE CLOSING DATE

*The funds for these posts are available for two years in the first instance.

Please quote reference RH01149 on all correspondence

Closing date: 22 May 2013

Interview Date(s): w/c 3 June 2013

Bioinformatician

Research Assistant or Research Associate

Salary: £24,049-£36,298

*Limited Funding

Professor John Danesh is the Unit’s overall Director and Professor Simon Thompson is the Unit’s Director of Research in Biostatistics.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a talented bioinformatician who is interested in joining world-leading large-scale studies of cardiovascular disease. This position can be filled by an appropriate candidate at Research Associate or Research Assistant level, depending on relevant qualifications and experience.

The main responsibility of the postholder will be to integrate information from large-scale genetic datasets to allow statistical analyses and help interpret novel findings. Specific examples may include:

automating a stringent genetic quality control pipeline;
working with publicly available next-generation sequencing data (eg, UK10K, 1000 Genomes);
creating scripts to mine and integrate data from external sources (eg, gene expression databases, functional databases like ENCODE);
testing and optimising state-of-the-art calling algorithms (eg, zCall, CHIAMANTE)
running imputation on large datasets from a range of genetic arrays using reference panels tailored to specific ethnic groups.

Such work will contribute to internationally unique insights into the heritable basis of cardiovascular disease, the world’s leading source of death and major disability, providing opportunities for medicines development and disease prevention. The role will also underpin analyses leading to a series of high-impact publications.

The post-holder will have: (1) relevant qualifications (eg, a postgraduate degree in bioinformatics or similar), (2) a sound understanding of scripting using R and python/C++/Perl/JAVA, in relation to very large datasets, (3) demonstrable experience of working with standard bioinformatic tools, (4) a strong quantitative background. The post-holder should also be able to work independently, accurately judge priorities, and have excellent organisational and communication skills.

Further Particulars are available to download here

Your cover letter should describe how you meet the person specification for the role.

Informal enquiries can be made to Dr Adam Butterworth by email (asb38@medschl.cam.ac.uk) or telephone + 44 (0) 1223 741302.

ALL APPLICATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 5PM ON THE CLOSING DATE

* The funds for these posts are available until 31 December 2015 in the first instance.

Please quote reference RH01105 on all correspondence.

Closing Date: 10 May 2013

Interview Date: 24 May 2013

Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit

Department of Public Health and Primary Care

Vacancies

Data Manager – Electronic Health Records

Bioinformatician