Summary

The Zhi Tan Lab at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, TX) is looking for a research assistant with expertise in computational chemistry and cheminformatics to join the lab. Dr. Tan's group utilizes techniques in different realms including deep learning, computational chemistry, bioinformatics, medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, and molecular cell biology to develop novel therapeutics to tackle complex diseases such as cancers. Successful candidates with a proven track record of cheminformatics and computational chemistry will work with the team to push the boundaries of cancer chemical biology.

The successful candidate will be able to design, code, test, and debug an existing software solution that contains a graphical front end (Django, Python), data processing pipeline (C++, Ruby) / job submission (PBS), and summary portal (Ruby on Rails).  The candidate should have experience with good software engineering practices, designing and developing software solutions to specifications, and the use of version control systems. 

Job Duties

• Maintain and extend existing front and back end applications supporting the initialization and cataloguing of experiments, decoding selection experiments, analyzing sequencing output, and dissemination of results.
• Plan, direct and conduct research experiments.
• Develop research techniques and perform applications required for specific research projects.
• Conduct literature searches and summarize information in an appropriate format for a particular study.
• Document results of experiments and reports to principal investigators.
• Participate in early stage drug discovery efforts in collaboration with biological and chemical scientists throughout the academic community, with a goal of bringing new treatments to patients with unmet medical needs. 
• Contribute to multidisciplinary lead-finding project teams by engaging in the following activities: demonstrate the ability to draw on a broad range of multi-disciplinary information in order to develop and drive the implementation of innovative approaches to cheminformatics analysis on large scale data; integrate and maintain the Center’s purchased software; develop and maintain scientific data infrastructure; analyze data and communicate results with a broad team of drug discovery scientists; work with scientists to identify new computational needs.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a Basic Science or a related field.
• Two years of relevant experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master Degree in Computational Chemistry, bioinformatics,  computational biology, or related discipline. Experience may not be substituted in lieu of degree.
• Proficiency in coding and debugging in Python
• Strong knowledge and experience with relational databases (e.g. Oracle, SQL, MySQL)
• Comfortable working in a Linux environment
• Experience with data processing pipelines and data analysis
• Experience in cheminformatics software development
• Excellent communication skills with a diverse team of biological and chemical scientists
• Experience with high performance computing environment (HPC) / cluster job submission
• Knowledge of statistical methods, data science algorithms, scientific and numerical computation
• Basic knowledge of chemistry and cheminformatics methods
• Familiarity with common Python tools including Pandas, Numpy, Scipy, Django, RDKit
• Experience with C++ and Ruby is a plus.