The Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) is an international research institute focusing on human genomics and personalised medicine at the Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE) of the University of Helsinki. FIMM integrates molecular medicine research, technology centre and biobanking infrastructures under one roof, promoting translational research in grand challenge projects, specifically, the impact of genome information from the Finnish population in personalised health and medicine, individualised cancer medicine, and digital molecular medicine. FIMM is part of the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine, composed of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the centres for molecular medicine in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and the EU-LIFE Community.

FIMM-HiLIFE & iCAN Flagship at the University of Helsinki is currently seeking a

Bioinformatician

to join the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland - FIMM, the leading precision cancer medicine research unit in Finland, and two iCAN Digital Precision Cancer Medicine projects.

FIMM is a translational institute with a driving mission to perform innovative research on patients and populations - utilizing molecular, genomic and health data - targeted towards understanding drivers of health and disease and delivering improvements to the safety, efficacy and efficiency of healthcare in Finland and beyond.

iCAN is part of the Academy of Finland Flagship Programme and hosted by the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital. iCAN is an innovative multidisciplinary initiative that brings together some of the world’s leading actors in cancer genomics, translational and clinical cancer research, digital health, information technology, machine learning, patients and business to solve one of the most pressing challenges in healthcare – cancer.

The bioinformatician will be working in two closely related subprojects of iCAN Flagship project in cancer precision medicine of solid tumors, COMPORG (immuno-organoids & urological cancers) and iCAN-PEDI (functional precision medicine of pediatric solid cancers), advancing personalized cancer diagnostics and treatment. Our multidisciplinary teams work closely together with clinicians at the hospitals, and our aim is to integrate the clinical and omics data into an analysis platform to enable the cutting-edge cancer research and robust translation back to the clinics for the patient's benefit.

We are looking for a bioinformatician with experience in omics data analysis and especially integration with other data, such as clinical data. Our omics data comes from, for example, high throughput drug testing, DNA/RNA sequencing, microscopic imaging, ligandome analysis and other approaches (e.g. single cell sequencing, metabolomics, pharmacogenomics). The candidate will also have to be able to build up a database for the ligandome data.

As a Bioinformatician, depending on your profile and experience, you will have the opportunity to

• Together with the iCAN data team, build the iCAN data analysis platform to enable integration of clinical and research data
• Manage our omics data and to develop computational pipelines to further integrate and analyze molecular profiling and imaging data for digital precision cancer medicine
• Work with large datasets in cloud environment
• Create software tools for clinical translation with the potential of revolutionizing treatment of cancer

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree (and/or PhD) in bioinformatics, computational biology, computer science, or equivalent
• Previous experience with omics data, data science or distributed computing environments is appreciated but not required – yet ability to quickly learn new things is essential
• Programming skills, especially in R and/or Python
• Understanding of database fundamentals
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English; Finnish skills are not required
• Solution-seeking, proactive and responsible way of working with good social abilities to work as a part of an interdisciplinary team and communicate between different experts (researchers, clinicians, etc.).

Salary and contract:

We will offer a competitive salary that will be based on previous qualifications, experience and performance in the position as based on the Finnish university salary (YPJ) system. The contract will start immediately and will be offered initially until the end of 2022. It may be extended thereafter. A six-month trial period will be applied.

To apply, please submit the application, together with your CV and salary request, through the University of Helsinki electronic recruitment system by clicking on Apply for job. Internal applicants (i.e., current employees of the University of Helsinki) please submit your applications through the SAP HR portal. Please apply no later than 31.1.2022.

For further information please visit https://ican.fi or contact Vilja Pietiäinen (vilja.pietiainen@helsinki.fi).

Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE) is an institute established in 2017 that supports high quality life science research across the University campuses and faculties. HiLIFE builds on existing strengths and new recruits and partnerships to create an attractive international environment for researchers to solve grand challenges in health, food, and environment. HiLIFE coordinates research infrastructures in life sciences and provides research-based interdisciplinary training.

The University of Helsinki, founded in 1640, is one of the world’s leading universities for multidisciplinary research. The university has an international academic community of 40,000 students and staff members. The University of Helsinki offers comprehensive services to its employees, including occupational health care and health insurance, sports facilities, and professional development opportunities. The International Staff Services office assists employees from abroad with their transition to work and life in Finland.

Finland is a member of the EU, has high quality free schooling (also in English), generous family benefits and healthcare, and was recently ranked as the best country in the afor expat families and in the world’s top ten most livable cities. Finland and the Helsinki region possess top expertise in sciences in terms of a vibrant talent pool, leading research, strong support services and functioning collaboration networks. For more information about working at the University of Helsinki and living in Finland, please see helsinki.fi/en/university/working-at-the-university.

Due date

31.01.2022 23:59 EET