Computational Postdoc: predicting how human stem cells differentiate using single-cell microscopy, image analysis and AI
Organization: University of Bristol
Position Information:
A postdoc position is available as part of an international HFSP funded collaboration in the group of Rafael Carazo Salas, University of Bristol UK, from 1 September 2019 (https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/en/persons/rafael-e-carazo-salas(a7638b29-53e4-49ba-82b5-98b21d82f41f).html).
Making personalised stem cell therapeutics a reality will require that we understand how to predictively engineer in vitro replacement cells and tissues robustly and in a tumour-free manner, on a person-by-person basis.
Towards that goal the Carazo Salas group is establishing innovative experimental and computational tools and pipelines combined with human pluripotent stem cell technologies (hESC, hiPSC), to elucidate the quantitative & mechanistic basis of efficiency, specificity & tumourigenic potential in human pluripotent stem cell differentiation and identify ways to improve personalised tissue engineering.
As part of that we have recently established large-scale, multiday, multicolour time-lapse microscopy pipelines allowing us to follow at single-cell level how ‘live’ human stem cells proliferate and differentiate over time, to better understand why some cells become efficiently programmed into intended target cell types and others do not. In practice this means we routinely image thousands of ‘live’ human stem cells in multiple epifluorescence microscopy channels (to monitor multiple live reporters of their proliferation and fate) every 10 minutes through multiple days, which gives rise to millions of single-cell data points in feature space from which we want to derive predictive information about cell fate.
We are looking to hire a highly motivated and talented computational postdoc with prior expertise in quantitative image analysis (particularly in cell segmentation and tracking from multi-channel time-lapse fluorescence microscopy images) and machine learning (particularly novel approaches like CNNs, GANs) to help us extract from those images information enabling us to understand and predict why each cell makes the fate decision it makes.
The selected computational scientist will work on a daily basis in close collaboration with experimentalists, and also as part of a larger collaboration with groups in Switzerland and the USA.
Applicants interested in this post should hold a PhD in Computational Image Processing, Computer Vision, Machine Learning or a related subject, have an excellent track record and extensive experience with computational image analysis and/or machine learning, and be excited to work in an interdisciplinary environment. Experience working with timelapse microscopy imaging of cells or high-throughput/high-content microscopy is a plus.
For enquiries, please contact Rafael E. Carazo Salas at rc16805@bristol.ac.uk and if you’re not that person please spread the word to somebody who might.
Nature careers ad is found here: https://www.nature.com/naturecareers/job/research-associate-computational-postdoc-university-of-bristol-uob-692681.