The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) strives to improve the nation’s health and quality of life by funding and conducting relevant and leading health research. It further aims to promote equity, career development and progression.

 

JUNIOR SCIENTIST

 

Duration: One-Year Contract

 

The SAMRC’s HIV and other Infectious Diseases Research Unit (HIDRU) requires a suitably qualified and experienced Junior Scientist. The Scientist is needed to provide research and data management support to the SARS-CoV-2 T cell study, as directed by the mentor. The job will include extracting genomic sequence data from open-source databases, conducting multiple sequence alignments, writing programming code and adapting existing bioinformatics tools and computational biology methods to analyse genomic data. There will be an opportunity to develop a research question for a master’s degree.

 

Responsibilities:

 

Understand and adhere to the scientific protocols, policies and procedures

Contribute to development of study SOPs

Write sections of project proposals or manuscripts under direct supervision

Coordinate aspects of studies/projects under full guidance of supervisor

Conduct data extraction and cleaning including managing large genomic data and conducting multiple sequence alignment

Identify, adapt and use various tools for predicting immune response epitopes

Write programming code for data analysis

Analyze, interpret and report research data

Prepare and present project progress reports at staff meetings (report on methods and data analysis),

Presentation at internal meetings (Journal clubs or seminars)

Core Requirements:

 

4-year undergraduate Degree including Hons Degree with a combination of biological/health sciences and bioinformatics/computer science or similar relevant qualification or higher

1 year of research (or honors degree with a research component) experience with working on virus genomics using computational biology methods

Experience with working in linux and computer cluster systems

Completed coursework on T cell immunity at degree level

Ability to write programming code in at least one programming language such as python or perl or other

Ability to use genomic sequence management tools such as Bioedit, MEGA or other

Advantageous:

 

Prior use of bioinformatics tools to investigate immune responses against pathogens

Prior experience in using open-source genomic databases

Ability to adapt existing bioinformatics software to project needs

Attention to detail

Ability to work proactively and independently under minimal supervision

Involved in writing scientific proposals or reports or manuscripts

Involvement in research on SARS viruses

Willing to register for master’s degree in Bioinformatics/Computational Biology

 

Interested candidates can send their CV