Applications are invited for the position of Senior Research Associate (Neuroinformatics & Bioinformatics) funded as part of the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre to provide neuroinformatics, bioinformatics and biostatistics analysis of neuroimaging and immunological data for research studies in psychiatry.

The Department has a major research project ongoing that is focused on analysis of neuroimaging (magnetic resonance imaging) and questionnaire data collected as part of an accelerated longitudinal design from healthy young people aged 14-25 years. This study, the Neuroscience in Psychiatry Network, is a collaboration between Cambridge and UCL, funded by the Wellcome Trust. This role is intended to provide statistical expertise, especially in the modelling of repeated measures or longitudinal datasets, to support the analysis of NSPN questionnaire and MRI data, and the links between them. Additionally the Department has several ongoing projects that involve collection of detailed immunological measurements - including multiplex proteomics, flow cytometry and RNA transcripts on blood and cerebrospinal fluid - from patients with depression, psychosis and other mental health disorders. This innovative and inter-disciplinary work is funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council with support from partners in the pharmaceutical industry. This role is designed to provide technical expertise and leadership in analysis of these large and complex datasets, and to originate new analytic tools as appropriate, to understand the links between the immune system, brain function and behaviour.

The post will be based at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, reporting to Professor Ed Bullmore (Psychiatry) with close links to Professor Sylvia Richardson and colleagues in the MRC Biostatistics Unit. There is the opportunity for the post-holder to develop independent proposals for research fellowships, in addition to the key responsibilities to the Department of Psychiatry, as outlined above.

Candidates should have a PhD (or equivalent) in bioinformatics or biostatistics.  Specialist knowledge and prior experience of using advanced statistical methods to analyse longitudinal MRI and questionnaire data, and/or experience of using bioinformatics tools for analysis of immunological datasets, would be highly advantageous.

Appointment to Senior Research Associate is conditional upon approval by the Faculty Board of the School of Clinical Medicine.

Informal enquiries may be directed to Professor Ed Bullmore (etb23@cam.ac.uk).

Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available until 31 March 2022 in the first instance.

To apply online for this vacancy and to view further information about the role, please visit:

http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/17910. This will take you to the role on the University’s Job Opportunities pages. There you will need to click on the 'Apply online' button and register an account with the University's Web Recruitment System (if you have not already) and log in before completing the online application form.

Please ensure that you upload a covering letter and CV in the Upload section of the online application. If you upload any additional documents which have not been requested, we will not be able to consider these as part of your application.

Please include details of your referees, including email address and phone number, one of which must be your most recent line manager.

Interviews are yet to be confirmed.

Please quote reference RN15938 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

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