Post-Doc Research Associate (Furey)

Primary Purpose of Organizational Unit:

Our mission is to improve the health and well-being of North Carolinians and others whom we serve. We accomplish this by providing leadership and excellence in the interrelated areas of patient care, education and research.
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Research: We develop and support a rich array of outstanding health sciences research programs, centers and resources. We provide infrastructure and opportunities for collaboration among disciplines throughout and beyond our university to support outstanding research. We foster programs in the areas of basic, translational, mechanistic and population research.

Position Summary:

The laboratory of Dr. Terry Furey in UNC Chapel Hill’s Department of Genetics seeks a post-doctoral research associate to participate in their Crohn’s disease-focused genomics research program. Along with the lab of Dr. Shehzad Sheikh, MD, PhD, a clinical molecular scientist and close collaborator of over five years, Dr. Furey’s laboratory aims uncover the mechanistic linkages between the genome (DNA sequence variants), epigenome (chromatin accessibility), and the environment (intestinal microbiome, clinical history) in the onset and progression of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), in particular Crohn’s disease.
The Furey Lab has performed multiple functional genomics experiments (ATAC-seq, RNA-seq, miRNA-seq, 16S rRNA gene sequencing) in tissue samples and individual cell types from colons and ileums of genotyped human IBD patients and controls. The post-doctoral research associate will help lead the effort to further understand the molecular basis of this disease.
Candidates with experience linking genetic variation with disease risk are encouraged to apply. The successful candidate will gain experience in a number of cutting-edge computational genomics analyses techniques, and gain knowledge and expertise in diagnosis and treatment of IBD. Importantly, these projects have great potential to become independent research projects that would further ambitious, motivated post-doctoral careers. In addition to research, the post-doctoral research associate will be actively involved with writing scientific papers and presenting talks at scientific meetings.

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements:

PhD

Required Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience:

Laboratory research experience in computational biology

Preferred Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience:

Candidates applying should be proficient in one or more of the following programming languages: Python, Perl, R, Java, C. Candidates must have experience analyzing high-throughput sequencing data from functional genomics experiments such as RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, and DNase-seq. Candidates must also have experiences performing human genetic analyses of complex traits. Experience performing research in inflammatory bowel diseases or human diseases desired. Candidates should also have strong communication and analytical skills.

Special Instructions:

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