Postdoctoral Research Fellow at GlaxoSmithKline (3 Year Fixed Term Contract)

Following a major GSK investment initiative for sequencing the UKB cohort, an exciting opportunity for a postdoc position based at GSK has arisen to work on these data (details below).

To apply, please follow this link: https://careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/client_gsk/external1931/gateway.do?functionName=viewFromLink&jobPostId=334877&localeCode=en-us

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

3 Year Fixed Term Contract

GSK are a science-led global healthcare company. We research and develop a broad range of innovative products in three primary areas of Pharmaceuticals, Vaccines and Consumer Healthcare. We also have a significant global presence with commercial operations in more than 150 countries, a network of 86 manufacturing sites in 36 countries and large R&D centres in the UK, USA, Spain, Belgium and China.

GSK has recently launched an exome sequencing study of 50,000 participants from the UK Biobank with the aim of identifying the next generation of drugs to meet global medical needs. We are seeking an energetic, innovative and resourceful statistical geneticist for an exciting postdoctoral fellowship opportunity at GSK working with large-scale exome sequencing data in the UK Biobank. This exciting position will allow a highly talented Postdoctoral Research Fellow to apply their skills to identify the next generation of drug targets, and use genetic information to better understand existing and novel drug targets.

We are recruiting a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to be based at the South-East England (Stevenage) R&D site in the Target Sciences team. The successful applicant will work closely with Robert Scott (Senior Investigator, Genetics) and Toby Johnson (Head, Statistical Genetics). The appointee will also benefit from close collaboration and academic mentoring by Jeff Barrett, Director of Open Targets and Group Leader at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

The selected Postdoctoral Research Fellow will:
• Develop and implement strategies to analyze and interpret human genotype and sequence data in a broad range of disease areas and to contribute to the developing science of therapeutic target validation
• Work with multi-disciplinary teams of GSK scientists and leading scientific collaborators to develop and execute approaches to bring genetic data to support therapeutic target selection and validation analyses.
• Develop and implement creative solutions to address challenging scientific questions.
• Have opportunites to follow their findings into clinical translation – impacting upon the next generation of therapies.
• Publish their work in leading scientific journals.

Basic Qualifications:
• The successful candidate for Postdoctoral Research Fellow will be seeking their first or second postdoctoral position after receiving a Ph.D. or equivalent in statistical genetics, biostatistics, statistical bioinformatics, or a related field.
• Proficient in analyses of human genetic and phenotypic data including experience with current tools and methods for QC and analysis of human genotype and sequence data
• Proficient in at least one general purpose programming language suitable for statistical genetic analyses, such as R or Python.
• Can interpret genetic association data and use functional annotation to identify potential causal mechanisms
• Demonstrable skills in working in teams to find creative ways to address scientific questions and prototype solutions.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills.

Preferred qualifications:
• Ability to develop, evaluate, and implement novel statistical genetic methodologies.
• Experience with longitudinal or time series phenotypic data, such as from electronic health records, epidemiological cohorts, or clinical trials.
• Experience with additional high dimensional molecular phenotypic data, such as from gene expression profiles, metabolomics, or proteomics.
• Experience in working with international multi-disciplinary teams performing functional follow-up of genetic associations

About us: GSK Target Sciences, led by Lon Cardon, aims to improve the number of successful late stage clinical trials by identifying and advancing drug targets with strong evidence of their role in disease biology. The team builds on major scientific and technology advances, breakthrough understanding of biological pathways, genomics and genetics, rapid progress in gene editing, informatics and the emergence of biobanks linked to large scale human health databases. In addition Target Sciences has recently established two key strategic relationships: The Open Targets partnership between EMBL-EBI, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, GSK, and Biogen; and the Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences. Target Sciences is a multidisciplinary, collaborative and scientifically driven environment, facilitated by interacting with key academic collaborators and GSK scientists to advance drug discovery and clinical development in multiple therapeutic areas. This field-leading research addresses important drug discovery and development challenges, directly impacts GSK’s R&D pipeline, and publishes results in top scientific journals.

Recent Publications:
Scott R.A. et al. A genomic approach to therapeutic target validation identifies a glucose-lowering GLP1R variant protective for coronary heart disease. Science Translational Medicine 8:341ra76 (2016)
Millwood, I.Y. et al. A phenome-wide association study of a lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 loss-of-function variant in 90 000 Chinese adults. Int. J. Epidemiol. 45(5): 1588-99 (2016)
Nelson M.R. et al. The genetics of drug efficacy: Opportunities and challenges. Nat. Rev. Genet. 17:197–206 (2016)
Xu, C.-F. et al. IL8 polymorphisms and overall survival in pazopanib- or sunitinib-treated subjects with renal cell carcinoma. Br. J. Cancer 112:1190–1198 (2015)
Nelson, M.R. et al. The support of human genetic evidence for approved drug indications. Nat. Genet. 47:856–860 (2015)
Agarwal, P., Sanseau,P., & Cardon,L.R. Novelty in the target landscape of the pharmaceutical industry. Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 12, 575–576 (2013)
Nelson, M.R. et al. An abundance of rare functional variants in 202 drug target genes sequenced in 14,002 people. Science 337, 100–104 (2012)

If requiring an adjustment for a disability, once selected for

Interview you may contact ukdiversity.recruitment@gsk.com

Closing date for applications: 14th April 2017

When applying for this role, please use the ‘cover letter’ of the on-line application to describe how you meet the competencies for this role, as outlined in the job requirements above.

The information that you have provided in your cover letter and CV will be used to assess your application.

Thank you for your interest in this opportunity.

Mathias Chiano, PhD

Senior Scientific Investigator, Genetics (UK)

Target Sciences (TSci)

GSK

Leyden Road, Gunnelswood Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG1 2NY, United Kingdom

Email: mathias.n.chiano@gsk.com

Tel+44 1438 76 6611