job opportunity: occasione per un bioinformatico in UK

Velocemente vi copio/incollo una nuova possibilità per fare un po’ di buona scienza in Scozia. Un’esperienza all’estero come fa a non attirare???:-) Opening for a computer scientist to help solving one of the fundamental problems of Cell Biology: the elucidation of protein-protein interactions
Reference
Job Type	Full-time
Job Status	Sourcing
Date Posted	Thursday, 20 September 2007
Location	Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, UK
Start Date	ASAP
Duration
Company Information	University of Edinburgh Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology Michael Swann Building, King’s Buildings Edinburgh, EH9 3JR Website: http://www.ed.ac.uk/
Job Description	Our group: We are a young group of currently seven people from Germany, UK, Denmark, Brazil, and China. The group has started four years ago in Milan, Italy, and relocated a bit more than a year ago to Edinburgh. We are embedded in one of the best Cell Biology Institutes of the UK interacting with some of the world’s best researchers in Cell Biology. Our own work focuses on acquiring data of proteins by mass spectrometry and on designing computational tools to mine this data for valuable information.   Our aim: We want to find out which proteins do interact in the cell. There are many thousand proteins in a human cell, most having their own distinct function. However, proteins usually act in complexes. Protein complexes can be isolated and their protein components be investigated by mass spectrometry. The analysis does reveal the identity of the proteins in the complex but not which proteins interact directly. This information is currently not accessible at all or only for a very limited number of complexes. We are therefore developing a new approach that will deliver this information.   Our approach: We chemically link proteins in complexes and preserve in this way their proximity for the mass spectrometric analysis. The proteins are then degraded in a controlled way into peptides. A few of the peptides are actually a pair of peptides stably linked to one an other by the chemical linker and thus containing the information we desire. These cross-linked peptides are at the centre of our interest. We detect them together with all the other peptide by mass spectrometry and then need to identify them. We do so by matching all spectra to a database containing all possible peptide combinations. In this way we find the peptide pair that matches best to our mass spectrometric data. The approach is computationally very challenging: 1000 proteins give easily rise to 1,000,000 peptides and hence to 5×1011 peptide pairs. A person in our lab has been working since 10 months on this computational problem and the open post is to reinforce these efforts.   Our requirements: Any candidate applying for this position should be knowledgeable about the techniques needed for the design of efficient algorithms and be able to use appropriate mathematical tools for analysing their performance. Moreover he/she should understand the importance of the data structures used in a particular implementation of an algorithm, and how the data structure that is used can affect the running time. Desirable skills include: knowledge of Java, databases (PostgreSQL) and web-based programming. More than four years of active research experience or a doctorate degree are required. Our offer: Application deadline is 03 October 2007. Funding is secured until 30.04.2009. The salary depends on the experience level (approx. 30,000 GBP/year) and is fixed by the European Commission who is the source of funding. In addition, travel allowance is paid according to the rules of the European Commission. Income tax in the UK is in the order of 25%. Besides this, Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, one of the most beautiful cities of Europe with a vivid cultural live and a close proximity to the legendary highlands. People are cheerful and open making a stay here an ideal opportunity to perfect English skills in addition to participating in exciting science.
Qualifications	PhD or minimum 4 years active research experience
Compensation	£28,023 – £30,779
Highest finished education	University
How to Apply	Applications must be directed to www.jobs.ed.ac.uk quoting vacancy ref 3007967.Further information: Juri Rappsilber, Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, juri.rappsilber@ed.ac.uk, www.wcb.ed.ac.uk/rappsilber.htm
Email Resume To	juri.rappsilber@ed.ac.uk
Contact Info	Juri Rappsilber Contact Phone: 0131 651 7057 Contact Email: juri.rappsilber@ed.ac.uk