About the role:
The Manchester Centre for Cancer Biomarker Sciences (MCCBS) develops, validates and implements biomarkers that support personalised medicine, the optimisation of cancer patient treatment. It has an international reputation for minimally invasive biomarkers (liquid biopsies) suitable for patient treatment selection and response monitoring. Advanced bioinformatics is an essential component of cancer biomarker sciences and pivotal for the success of the Centre.
The Manchester Centre for Cancer Biomarker Sciences (MCCBS) develops, validates and implements biomarkers that support personalised medicine, the optimisation of cancer patient treatment. It has an international reputation for minimally invasive biomarkers (liquid biopsies) suitable for patient treatment selection and response monitoring. Advanced bioinformatics is an essential component of cancer biomarker sciences and pivotal for the success of the Centre.
Our research integrates clinical, translational, molecular and computational science in a highly interdisciplinary programme to discover, refine and deploy biomarkers for cancer personalised medicine. The MCCBS Director, Professor Caroline Dive CBE, an international authority on cancer biomarker sciences, has assembled the broad spectrum of expertise required to deliver biomarkers to the clinic within the context of the CRUK Manchester Institute (CRUK MI), the Manchester Cancer Research Centre and the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, one of the largest dedicated cancer hospitals in Europe. Few centres world-wide have such breadth and depth of expertise.
You will be a critical component in this centre, building and leading a team of ~10 bioinformaticians, driving biomarker projects forward and making decisions in a rapidly developing multi-disciplinary environment. You will have access to large clinical data sets within local, national and global clinical studies and trials and a wealth of data with which to explore exploitable cancer biology from preclinical models of a range of human cancers.
You will work with the Centre Director and colleagues, including clinicians, molecular biologists, chemists and computational scientists to lead analyses of multimodal data sets arising from cancer patient samples and derived preclinical models. You will also be engaged in innovative drug and target discovery and validation projects with strong links to the CRUK MI’s Drug Discovery Unit.
About you:
You should have a PhD and extensive experience in Computational Biology/Bioinformatics or Mathematics (or related discipline). You will also have significant experience in writing complex bodies of code and demonstrable experience in implementing a variety of bioinformatic approaches. You will be able to develop a strategic plan for your team aligned to the Centre’s goals and vision, implement state-of-the-art informatics approaches and develop new methodologies to work with the clinical colleagues and the Centre’s biomarker teams to push research boundaries.You will be an effective team manager and co-supervisor of junior scientists and clinical fellows ensuring high quality delivery of the bioinformatic aspects of wide ranging research projects. Working with the Centre Director, you will be expected to obtain grant income for your team. You will be highly collaborative and proactive in developing productive alliances, locally, nationally across the CRUK network and internationally.
You will be an ambassador for the MCCBS. An understanding of cancer omics, cancer biology and an appreciation of liquid biopsies are desirable. You will have excellent communication skills and the ability to converse successfully with interdisciplinary collaborators from non-mathematical backgrounds. Experience of multidisciplinary teamwork is essential.
