Postdoctoral Fellow in Precision Medicine : Zurich, Switzerland

Postdoc in Precision Medicine in the Bodenmiller Lab at the University of Zurich

The project and position: 
Cancer is a complex tissue disease that involves multiple cell types including tumor, immune, and stromal cells. These cells closely interact and influence each other to drive disease progression. Comprehensively characterizing the cellular components and understanding how the different cells interact in the tumor ecosystem is critical to identify the most appropriate treatment for each individual patient.

Our group is among the pioneers in the development and application of single-cell proteomic approaches for the comprehensive analysis of tumor ecosystems. Our imaging mass cytometry approach enables simultaneous visualization of over 50 proteins and transcripts in single cells in tissues (Nat. Methods 2014 & 2017). Application of mass cytometry to kidney cancer revealed novel immune cell phenotypes associated with poor progression free survival (Cell, 2017).

We are seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral fellow to join the lab to help unravel the workings of the tumor ecosystem in different types of cancers as part of a translational precision medicine project. The project will involve suspension and imaging mass cytometry. Machine learning approaches and systems biology analyses will be used to infer cellular network models describing the components and the wiring that underlies the tumor ecosystem and to suggest appropriate treatments for patients.

This project will be embedded in a fully integrated consortium of clinicians, bioinformaticians, and basic researchers who will all contribute to make the promise of precision medicine a reality. The consortium will provide tumor samples, generate complementary datasets, and computational data analysis. The postdoctoral fellow will be located at the University of Zurich.

In this position you will: 
• work in a collaborative and interdisciplinary team at the interface of the clinic, academia, and industry
• develop novel single-cell approaches to best study cellular interactions in the tumor ecosystem 
• analyze complex, high dimensional, spatially resolved single-cell data to be translated to the clinic
• publish as a lead author in highly visible journals

You must be: 
• a highly motivated Ph.D. or M.D.-Ph.D. level researcher with a passion for science who would like to work in a collaborative multidisciplinary research environment that combines systems biology, tumor biology, bioinformatics, and biomedicine

Ideally, you have: 
• acquired your Ph.D. recently (maximum of 4 years ago) 
• experience in single-cell analysis and/or tissue imaging 
• expertise in statistical and machine learning approaches for analysis of large datasets 
• a desire to work in a collaborative environment 
• an excellent proficiency in English (German is optional)

To apply: 
Send by email a cover letter (including an explanation of your motivation), your CV, and the contact information of at least two references to Prof. B. Bodenmiller (bernd.bodenmiller@imls.uzh.ch). This position is available starting immediately. Applications will be considered until the position is filled….