PRR Project

Summary

The effort to technological transition and digitally modernisation training in Health and Life Sciences sectors is becoming crucial, to promote resilience and adaptability of future and current research and training health professionals and health researchers. Thus, the institutions need to adapt to this new reality and create an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary ecosystem promoting a successful health research contemplating the different areas of clinical genetics, clinical physical exercise, clinical nutrition or nursing, among others. The impacts expected for these Life and Health Sciences are multiple and profound, as for instances cloud technology, telemedicine, artificial intelligence, Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), human resources, marketing and communication, drug personalisation, precision medicine and so on. Scientific profiles that embrace the two research areas of Biological Sciences and Computer Engineering are of upmost importance to better comprehend the biological systems and effectively apply the new digital technologies and hence promote a technological transition of these areas of research.The candidate for this position must present a scientific profile that gathers several general qualities/specificities:PhD degree in the field with more than 8 years of experience in research;Established reputation grounded on research quality in its Life Science field;Academic knowledge in computer engineering;Scientific independence, evidenced by leading a research line, mentoring students, proactivity and mastery of different experimental technologies;Proven experience in conducting research projects;Eclectic publication record in the Biological Sciences field;Ability to establish co-operations and collaborations in research projects with colleagues and project partners, making positive contributions to the development of knowledge;Capacity to promote and organise workshops and transmit specific know-how;Excellent communication and presentation skills, both written and oral, and ability to communicate its research data effectively to the research community and wider society by participating in national and international conferences and seminars within the field;Supervision and training of students (undergraduate, MSc and PhD students) and other team members;Assisting management with budget and time schedules;Show an innovative approach to research;Follow a strict code of ethics;Show a strong sense of curiosity, creativity, and initiative; Willingness to learn new things and adapt to changing environments.Also, the candidate needs to present the following specificities:Strong background in research methods and tools in the field;Expertise in molecular biology techniques such as DNA and RNA isolation, PCR, RT-qPCR, molecular cloning;Expertise in cytogenetic techniques, both classical (G-banding, C-banding, etc) and molecular such as fluorescent in situ hybridization (DNA-FISH, RNA-FISH, M-FISH, fibre-FISH, etc);Knowledge in probe preparation using various methods for use in FISH;Experience in genomic approaches, such as RNA-seq by NGS, long-read whole-genome sequencing, as well as ability to interpret the data generated using statistical and qualitative techniques;Vast experience with in vitro cell culturing procedures and with varied protocols;Knowledge and experience in microscopy, namely epifluorescence microscopy and confocal microscopy and with imaging software’s.Experience in analysing Big Data and bioinformatic tools;Computer programming skills able to develop directed pipelines.Overall, the candidate needs to have a vast experience in molecular biology, genomic and cytogenetic techniques in order to be able to perform the experiments, do troubleshooting, easily learn new methods and implement new protocols in the laboratory. In addition, the candidate needs to have strong knowledge in computer science in order to adapt all these technologies to the current knowledge, specifically in dealing with Big data, machine learning, and programming focused pipelines for specific problems.Also, the candidate needs to show independence and high motivation. The person that earns this position will be working in an academic environment, so it is expected that he/she will receive students from varied degrees and be actively involved in their MSc, PhD thesis training and supervision.