PhD position: Virus bioinformatics in Zürich

The Computational Biology Group at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering of ETH Zurich in Basel works at the interface of mathematics, statistics, and computer science with biology and medicine. We develop statistical and evolutionary models and efficient algorithms for high-throughput molecular profiling data, with applications in oncology and infectious diseases. Applications are encouraged for a position as a PhD student.

The open position is in the field of computational virology and analyzing viral sequencing data to improve HIV diagnostics. The goal is to develop computational methods for viral next-generation sequencing data that enable DNA-based HIV drug resistance testing, to test the method on a large clinical dataset, and to devise a novel genotypic HIV-1 DNA drug resistance test.

The position involves:

• design and implementation of novel statistical and machine learning methods for next-generation sequencing data
• validation, testing, and application of the models to large clinical datasets comprising NGS data from integrated HIV proviruses
• integration of the models into computational viral NGS data analysis workflows 
• development of a novel genotypic HIV-1 DNA drug resistance test

You have a strong quantitative background in computational biology, statistics, machine learning, computer science, physics, mathematics, or a related field. Exposure to modelling biological systems and experience in developing software for their analysis are also advantageous. You are expected to engage in an interdisciplinary research team and foster collaboration across computational sciences, virology, and clinical diagnostics.

Our research group is in the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering of ETH Zurich, a major research university offering an excellent environment for innovative and collaborative research. The department is located in Basel, a European hot spot for biomedical research, nearby of several academic research institutes and the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. We are also part of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, a major provider of bioinformatics services and resources. The project is in close collaboration with Prof. Dr Karin Metzner (Dept. of Infectious Diseases, University Hospital Zurich) and Dr Michael Huber (Inst. of Medical Virology, University of Zurich).

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