PostDoc in Human Population Genomics, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
MULTIPLE POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS are available in Dr. Adam Siepel’s
research group in its new location at the Simons Center for Quantitative
Biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, starting in September,
2014. The Siepel group specializes in the development of probabilistic
models, algorithms for inference, prediction methods, and application
of these methods in large-scale genomic data analysis. Of particular
interest is research relevant to existing, NIH-supported projects in
(1) human population genomics, including demography inference using
Bayesian coalescent-based methods, inference of natural selection on
regulatory and other noncoding sequences, and prediction of fitness
consequences for noncoding mutations; and (2) transcriptional regulation
in mammals and Drosophila, including the estimation of rates and patterns
of transcriptional elongation from the GRO-seq data, prediction of
transcription factor binding sites from DNase-seq data, and regulatory
network inference based on joint patterns of transcription and binding
in inducible systems. The research on transcriptional regulation will
continue to be carried out in close collaboration with Dr. John Lis at
Cornell University.
Relevant recent papers including the following:
1. Rasmussen MD, Hubisz MJ, Gronau I, Siepel A. Genome-wide inference
of ancestral recombination graphs. PLOS Genet., in press.
2. Freedman AH, Gronau I, Schweizer RM, Ortega-Del Vecchyo D, Han E,
et al. (30 co-authors). Genome sequencing highlights the dynamic
early history of dogs. PLOS Genet.10(1):e1004016, 2014.
3. Capra JA, Hubisz MJ, Kostka D, Pollard KS, Siepel A. A model-based
analysis of GC-biased gene conversion in the human and chimpanzee
genomes. PLOS Genet. 9(8):e1003684, 2013.
4. Arbiza L, Gronau I, Aksoy BA, Hubisz MJ, Gulko B, Keinan A,
Siepel A. Genome-wide inference of natural selection on human
transcription factor binding sites. Nature Genetics 45(7):723-
729, 2013.
5. Danko CG, Hah N, Luo X, Martins AL, Core L, Lis JT, Siepel A,
Kraus WL. Signaling pathways differentially affect RNA polymerase
II initiation, pausing, and elongation rate in cells. Mol. Cell50(2):212-
222, 2013.
6. Gronau I, Arbiza L, Mohammed J, Siepel A. Inference of natural
selection from interspersed genomic elements based on polymorphism
and divergence. Mol. Biol. Evol. 30(5):1159-1171, 2013.
7. Guertin MJ, Martins AL, Siepel A, Lis JT. Accurate prediction of
inducible transcription factor binding intensities in vivo. PLOS
Genetics, 8(3):e1002610, 2012.
8. Gronau I, Hubisz MJ, Gulko B, Danko CG, Siepel A. Bayesian
inference of ancient human demography from individual genome
sequences. Nature Genetics 43(10):1031-1034, 2011.
The ideal candidate will be enthusiastic, highly motivated, and
independent, will have a strong background in comparative genomics,
population genomics, or transcriptional regulation, a serious
interest in molecular biology and genetics combined with good skills in
mathematics and computer science, and a strong record of accomplishment in
research. Postdoctoral associates in the group are expected to participate
in both methods development and data analysis, to be comfortable in
a fast-moving, interactive, and collaborative research environment,
and to actively publish and present results.
Required Qualifications
1. Ph.D. in bioinformatics, computer science, statistics, genetics,
molecular biology, applied mathematics, or a related field.
2. Research experience (with first-author publications) in
computational genomics or a closely related field.
3. Fluency in probabilistic modeling and computational statistics.
4. Proficiency in programming, ideally in C or C++ as well as in
scripting languages such as python, perl, matlab, or R. Should be
comfortable in a linux environment, with large data sets, computer
clusters, and databases.
Term
The term for this position is flexible but most likely will be 2-3
years. The proposed start date is September 2014. As many as 4 positions
may be filled, depending on the quality of the applicants.
To Apply
Submit a CV, a short description of research interests and experience,
and contact information for three references by e-mail to acs4 at cornell
dot edu. Informal inquiries are welcome.