The Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology is an integrated hospital and research institute, which combines healthcare, research and education on pediatric cancer, in a single location in Utrecht. Our institute aims to provide the highest level of care for all children with cancer, with optimal quality of life. Combined with leading scientific research, we have created a unique interdisciplinary institute for pediatric oncology in Europe.
Oncode Accelerator
Together with several academic hospitals, research institutes, and companies, the Princess Máxima Center has recently obtained funding from the Dutch National Growth Fund and has a leading role in this massive program. The public-private partnership is a nationwide program and aims to accelerate the preclinical development of novel cancer therapeutics. To accelerate the development of safe, personalized and effective therapies, Oncode Accelerator places the patient at the center of the preclinical development pipelines. For more information, please see: https://www.oncodeaccelerator.nl/
Therapeutic vaccines workstream
The therapeutic vaccines workstream within Oncode Accelerator is one of these development pipelines. More specifically, our activities at the Máxima Center cover the target finding activities to design new cancer vaccines against. Locally, our Oncode Accelerator activities involve the van Heesch, van Boxtel, and Nierkens groups. Additionally, there are close ties with multiple Dutch universities (including Utrecht University; more specifically the biomolecular mass spectrometry groups of Albert Heck and Nicola Ternette), academic hospitals, and industry. The position will be embedded in the Máxima research group of Sebastiaan van Heesch, who is the overall coordinator of the workstream activities at the Máxima Center.
What to expect?
For the development, maintenance, optimization, and execution of our bioinformatics pipelines, we are looking for an enthusiastic, creative and efficient bioinformatician who will help realize our ambitions within the therapeutic vaccines workstream. Your key responsibilities are:
- Pipeline Maintenance and Improvements:
- Maintain existing genomic pipelines, ensuring they run efficiently and reliably.
- Implement improvements to enhance pipeline performance and functionality.
- Document pipeline workflows, parameters, and outputs for reproducibility and future reference.
- Execute established pipelines for transcriptome and translatome analysis: Initially set up in an HPC environment, potentially transitioning to a cloud environment in the future.
- Data Stewardship: Manage in-house and external data storage and handling.
Profile
We’re seeking a motivated Bioinformatician to join our team, dedicated to neoantigen discovery and therapeutic vaccine development. You will play a pivotal role in the development, testing, validation and execution of our bioinformatical pipelines, utilizing diverse and massive datasets. Your computational skills will be instrumental in advancing our understanding of tumor biology and accelerating the discovery of neoantigens for therapeutic vaccine development. Required profile:
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in life science, engineering, computer science, information systems, or equivalent.
- Demonstrable bioinformatics experience.
- Knowledge of gene expression regulation.
- Familiarity with transcriptomics analysis techniques.
- Proficiency in bash scripting.
- Proficiency in either R or Python programming languages.
In addition, you preferably have:
- Experience with High-Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure.
- Familiarity with cloud computing platforms, particularly Google Cloud.
- Knowledge of workflow management systems, particularly Nextflow.
- Experience in using Git for version control.
Our job offer
We offer a full-time position (based on 36 hours a week) in a very stimulating and interactive environment. The contract will be initially for one year, with the possibility to extend upon satisfaction. Your gross monthly salary will be based on your experience and background within scale FWG 55 (minimum of €3.434,- euro and maximum of €4.842,- gross per month for a full-time working week) and will include 8,33% holiday allowance and 8,33% end-of-year bonus. The Princess Máxima Center operates according to the collective labor agreement ‘CAO ziekenhuizen’.
Work environment
The Van Heesch group was established in 2020 and currently consists of 14 people, including PhD students, postdocs, research technicians, bioinformaticians, and interns. We combine wet lab and computational work and offer support in both directions. Our group works on a diversity of tumor entities and most of our projects are centered around the discovery of new translated open reading frames through RNA-seq and ribosome profiling.
We value diversity and inclusivity, an open and welcoming working atmosphere, and a healthy work-life balance. Our group frequently organizes social events and makes sure international team members feel welcome! The Máxima center is a highly international research environment with over 50 different nationalities, with various initiatives and activities to stimulate interaction and support international staff.
Contact
Are you excited about this position? We are looking forward to meeting you! You can apply directly by clicking on the orange button on this page. We invite you to apply as soon as possible, since we will close the vacancy when we have found a suitable candidate. Please provide:
- an up-to-date resume/CV
- a short motivation letter describing your background and interests
- contact information of 2-3 references
For more information about this position, or to arrange an informal chat, please contact Simon Venneman. Simon will be happy to tell you more!
Acquisition as a result of this vacancy is not appreciated.
Apply now