We are seeking a faculty-level genome scientist to lead the Eukaryotic Annotation Team at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). As Team Leader you will have strategic responsibility for gene annotation and comparative genomics in the Ensembl project, and also lead the EMBL contribution to a portfolio of collaborative resources focussed on model organism and helminth genomics.
The Eukaryotic Annotation team acts as a genome annotation and analysis hub for Ensembl, WormBase and The Alliance of Genome Resources (AGR). Ensembl is one of the world’s leading bioinformatics resources for genomic research, integrating and annotating genomes for thousands of species. WormBase is the pre-eminent knowledgebase for the genetics and genomics of the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, and other nematodes and flatworms of biomedical and agricultural importance. WormBase is a founding member of the Alliance of Genome Resources (AGR), an international consortium developing a new cloud-based platform of tools to facilitate the use of model organism genomes for the understanding of human biology, heath and disease.
Your role
You will lead the Eukaryotic Annotation team comprising approximately 25 staff with a range of expertise (curators, bioinformaticians and software engineers). You will have strategic oversight for the gene annotation and comparative genomics components of Ensembl, and will work closely with other Team Leaders and senior staff at EMBL-EBI to develop overarching annotation strategy for Ensembl and other collaborating EMBL-EBI resources. You will also lead the EMBL-EBI contributions to WormBase and AGR, collaborating with partners and stakeholders both in the UK and internationally to develop both high-level scientific strategy and detailed technical strategy.
Activities you will oversee include: designing and deploying efficient and accurate pipelines to annotate and compare thousands of genomes across the eukaryotic tree of life; custodianship and curation of the canonical reference genome and annotation for C. elegans; developing genome annotation resources for parasitic worms (helminths) that damage human health and food supply; collaborating with 11 partner institutions on the development of a new cloud-based bioinformatics platform for model organism genetics and genomics.
In addition to the above, specific responsibilities will include:
- Identifying appropriate funding opportunities and applying successfully for external grants
- Participation in international scientific consortia such at the Darwin Tree of Life and the Human Reference Pangenome Project, as well as more targeted external collaborations such as the Apollo genome curation tool project
- Managing the team’s finances and budgeting and recruiting new members into the team
- Contributing to the development of overall organisational strategy
- Presenting work in international meetings and preparing scientific publications