Postdoctoral Research Associate

Comparative genomics, and specifically our ability to identify which genes are related in different species, has revolutionized our understanding of the natural world. It enables us to reconstruct the tree-of-life on Earth, it allows us to reveal how biological function has evolved and is distributed on this tree, and it is the foundation that enables us to use model organisms to study health and disease. Accordingly, almost all of contemporary biological science research is critically dependent on our ability to identify which genes are related in different species. The Kelly lab has developed the OrthoFinder comparative genomic methods. OrthoFinder has become widely-used in comparative genomics research, it powers many popular databases of online genomic information, and has enabled and been cited by over 6,000 studies in the last five years. The Kelly lab is looking to appoint a post doctoral research assistant to work on the OrthoFinder project.

The successful applicant will be responsible for developing and implementing additional functionality in the OrthoFinder method. Specifically, the successful applicant will focus on improving the usability and accessibility of the method to enhance user ability to perform analyses in comparative genomics, enable new analyses, and gain new evolutionary insights from data generated using OrthoFinder. The successful applicant should have prior experience in data analysis, data visualization, and preferably the development of interactive web-applications through approaches such as Bokeh, Shiny, Taipy, Streamlit etc. The successful applicant should be motivated and excited by the opportunity to help advance the capabilities of comparative genomic research community, and to use these tools to make new discoveries.

The Kelly lab welcomes individuals with diverse career backgrounds - PhD-level scientists in any discipline with expertise in data and programming, or software engineers outside of academia looking to change career to biological research are particularly welcome to apply.
Where Covid-19 has resulted in substantial disruption to your work or research outputs, please explain this by providing an additional paragraph in your supporting statement.
The University of Oxford is committed to equality and valuing diversity. All applicants will be judged on merit, according to the selection criteria.