Computational Biology – School of Medicine (F69030) - Virginia Commonwealth University

Mission or Goal of Unit:

VirginiaCommonwealth University is a premier urban, public research university with a diversestudent body and both research-intensive and community-engaged designations from theCarnegie Foundation. Located in historic Richmond, Virginia, VCU enrolls more than31,000 students on two campuses.

Themission of the School of Medicine is to provide preeminent education tophysicians andscientists in order to improve the quality of health care for humanity. Through innovative,scholarly activity and a diverse educational context, the School seeks to createand apply new knowledge, and to provide and continuously improve systems of medicaland science education. Furthermore, it is our mission to develop more effective healthcare practices to address the needs of the diverse populations we serve, and to providedistinguished leadership in the advancement of medicine and science.

The mission of the Massey Cancer Center is to improve the lives of all Virginians by delivering cutting-edge cancercare through patient-centered prevention and treatment; high-impact, innovativeresearch; community input and engagement; and education and training of thenext generation of researchers and healthcare professionals. The vision of Massey is to be a premiercommunity-focused cancer center leading the nation in cancer health equity andensuring optimal health outcomes for all.

Chief Purpose of this position: 

As amember of the cancer center, the faculty member will undertake cancer research activitiesthat are aligned with MCC vision and mission: to improve the lives of all Virginians by delivering cutting-edge cancercare through patient-centered prevention and treatment; high-impact, innovativeresearch; community input and engagement; and education and training of thenext generation of researchers and healthcare professionals. The vision ofMassey is to be a premier community-focused cancer center leading the nation incancer health equity and ensuring optimal health outcomes for all.

As afaculty member in the department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the schoolof Medicine,the candidate will also support the department with teaching responsibilities includingteam-teaching medical and graduate levels courses. The candidate will be responsiblefor training and being a mentor to graduate students seeking M.S. and Ph.D.degrees. The candidate will serve as members of departmental as well as university wide service committees.

This Assistant Professor position is focused on ComputationalBiology/Bioinformatics/Drug Discovery inthe cancer area and will work closely with Dr. Said Sebti in the Massey CancerCenter at the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.  The candidate must have a proven track recordin computational biology/bioinformatics as it relates to genome/proteome-scaleresearch including differential gene/protein expression, proteinphosphorylation, pathway analysis to support drug discovery projects. Thecandidate will use computational/bioinformatic approaches to understand themechanism by which cancer cells become addicted to the oncogene KRAS and basedon this knowledge identify genetic, genomic, transcriptomic and proteomicmolecular signature that will lead to novel diagnostic, prognostic andtherapeutic approaches to thwart KRAS-driven human cancers. The research focusof Dr. Sebti’s laboratory is to understand at the basic science level how normalcells become malignant, with a focus on KRAS-driven cancers, and to translatesuch fundamental knowledge to the clinic. Candidates will be involved inexciting and highly integrated inter-disciplinary research projects concerningunderstanding aberrant oncogenic KRas signal transduction pathways in cancerand designing novel anti-cancer drugs based on this knowledge.  In addition, candidates will be expected tosubmit grant applications for peer-reviewed extramural funding.

Position Responsibilities: 

Research: Undertake cancer researchactivities that are aligned with MCC vision and mission.Submit and obtain peer-reviewed grants preferably R-type grants from NCI. Publishmanuscripts in high impact journals. Work closely with Dr Sebti so as toharness the considerable intellectual talent and scientific resources of VCUand focus them on solving the nation’s cancer problem.

Teaching and Mentoring: Support thedepartment of pharmacology and toxicology withteaching responsibilities including team-teaching medical and graduate levels courses. Train and mentorgraduate students seeking M.S. and Ph.D. degrees.

Service: Serve as member ofdepartmental as well as university wide service committees.

Required Qualifications: 

• Ph.D inBioinformatics, Computational Biology or a closely related field.
• 8 ormore years of research experience in the fields of bioinformatics,computational biology, systems biology, proteomics, and/or genomics.
• A deepunderstanding of Ras signal transduction pathways with experience ininvestigating the mechanism of KRAS addiction of cancer cells.
• Extensivepublication record.
• Proventrainee and faculty mentorship skills.
• Trackrecord working in multi-disciplinary fields.
• Demonstratedexperience working in and fostering a diverse faculty, staff, and
  student environment or commitment to do so as a faculty member at VCU.

Preferred Qualifications:  

• Designand analysis of genome/proteome-scale research including differentialgene/protein expression, pathway analysis
• Analysisand interpretation of high-dimensional data, including genomic, transcriptomic,and proteomic datasets.  RNA-seq dataanalysis to generate gene clusters using a combination of dimensionalityreduction analysis (t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) andFuzzy C-means.
• Using Rand/or Python, Linux and cloud computing systems to develop robust statisticalmethods and algorithms and drive data mining efforts.
• Gene SetEnrichment Analysis (GSEA) use to identify initial gene clusters, using Enrichr,ENCODE, GO, KEGG to generate signal transduction pathways.
• Experiencein cancer research field and/or drug discovery.
• Experienceworking in a matrix environment within academic medicine.
• Proven success in collaborating with multi-disciplinary teams.

Position Type: Teaching & Research Faculty
Full time equivalent: 100
Tenure: Ineligible
Rank: Assistant Professor
Months: 12
Department:School of Medicine - Pharmacology and Toxicology

Salary: Commensurate

ORP Eligible: Yes

Contact Information:
Contact Name: Tricia Gibson
Contact Email: Tricia.Gibson@vcuhealth.org
Contact Phone: