Postdoctoral Research Associate – Bioinformatics & Microbial Genomics

[jonathanjacobs]

Postdoctoral Research Associate – Bioinformatics & Microbial Genomics

Founded in 1944, MRIGlobal is an independent, not-for-profit organization that performs contract research and other services for clients in business, industry and government.

We currently have an opening for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Microbial Genomics which is available immediately and located in Rockville, MD. The successful candidate will join a team of researchers led by Dr. Jonathan Jacobs actively conducting genomics-based research in infectious disease diagnostics, biosurveillance, microbiology, virology, and microbial forensics for a variety of government and industrial clients.

Principal Accountabilities and Success Factors

Successful candidates will have a passion for applied research, and developing technically sound solutions for real-world problems. Examples of research activities may include one or more of the following efforts:

• develop state of the art bioinformatics pipelines to support trace detection of pathogens from clinical and/or environmental samples;
• develop pipelines for comparative clinical or environmental microbiome studies;
• develop genomics approaches for predictive phenotyping of unculturable microbial pathogens;
• develop and apply strategies for analysis of host-pathogen interaction data (i.e. RNA-Seq data) to identify candidate pathways or targets with diagnostic utility.

The Postdoctoral Research Associate will work directly with the MRIGlobal Biosurveillance research team and report to Dr. Jonathan Jacobs (MRIGlobal, Rockville, MD).

We aim to attract new talent into MRIGlobal’s existing pool of forward thinking research scientists focused on applied research in environmental/agricultural biosurveillance, infectious disease clinical diagnostics, and microbial forensics. Appointments will be made for an initial period of two (2) years, with the possibility of additional extensions. Publication of research in peer-reviewed journals is expected.

Minimum Qualifications

• A recent Ph.D. and experience in next generation sequencing data analysis and bioinformatics is required. Applicants with additional “wet-lab” experience in microbial genomics, microbiology and/or virology are encouraged to apply.
• At least one first-author peer-reviewed publication.
• Applicants MUST be a U.S. Citizen and be eligible to obtain a Department of Defense Security Clearance.

We are proud to be an EOE/M/F/Vet/Disabled employer. We maintain a drug-free workplace and perform pre-employment substance abuse testing.

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