Position Title: Systems Programmer

Duties & Responsibilities: The Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at Duke University Medical Center has two open positions to develop online bioinformatics and machine learning tools for automated flow cytometry analysis in cancer vaccine and HIV studies. Flow cytometry is a high-throughput, minimally invasive method to directly measure the phenotypic and functional characteristics of immune cells that are critical in fighting cancer and HIV infection, and our group is developing statistical algorithms and open source software tools to automate the analysis of these increasingly high-dimensional and complex data sets. The first position is for a Systems Programmer with experience developing web-based software interfaces. The main responsibility will be to develop the web frontend for an online bioinformatics pipeline to automate the processing of flow cytometry data from multiple international laboratories. In addition to the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at Duke University, the project involves collaboration with immunologists at Leiden University Medical Center, the University of Tubingen, and the University Medical Center of the Johannes-Gutenberg University. The online bioinformatics tools developed in this project will support multiple international laboratories participating in the ImmunoGuiding program of the Association for Cancer Immunology (CIMT). The second position is for a Postdoctoral Associate who will develop the statistical/machine learning algorithms to automatically identify cell subsets from high-dimensional cytometry (encompassing flow, mass and imaging cytometry) data for large scale immune monitoring and biomarker discovery in HIV studies. The postdoc will work closely with our collaborators in the Department of Statistical Sciences at Duke University to develop machine-learning models to characterize high-throughput immunological data. The postdoc will use these algorithms to analyze data provided by multiple US and international laboratories participating in the External Quality Assurance Program Oversight Laboratory (EQAPOL) program that seeks to improve the quality of data analysis in HIV clinical research laboratories. The postdoc will also work with flow cytometry experts in the Duke Center for AIDS Research (reference flow laboratory for EQAPOL) to develop methods and software for biomarker discovery from complex cytometry data sets.

Position Qualifications: Both candidates will be expected to collaborate closely to respectively develop the front- and back-ends of the bioinformatics pipeline. Candidates for the first position as a Systems Programmer should have a BSc in Bioinformatics, Computer Science or related technical field, experience with web development and strong programming skills in Python. Knowledge of user interface design, relational databases and some biological background is highly desirable. Candidates for the second position as a Postdoctoral Associate should have a PhD in Machine Learning, Statistics or related technical field, and strong programming skills in Python/R/C. Knowledge of high performance and GPU computing, statistical visualization and some biological background is highly desirable.

Salary Range:

Benefits: www.hr.duke.edu/benefits

Web Site: www.biostat.duke.edu

Application Address: The Systems Programmer position is available immediately and will be filled as soon as possible. Please submit a cover letter (including a brief statement of interest) and CV to Dr. Cliburn Chan, cliburn.chan@duke.edu. Duke University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and Educator.

Contact Email: cliburn.chan@duke.edu

Application Deadline: 12/31/2012