PreCyte Inc. is a biotech startup that develops innovative diagnostic tests for neurodegenerative diseases and cancer in Seattle, WA. PreCyte and scientists from the Seattle Children’s Research Institute are collaborating to develop a novel blood-based diagnostic platform to identify disease signatures in patient’s blood. The platform is based on exposing standardized cultured cells to patient’s blood and measuring the transcriptional response of the cells to identify biomarkers of disease. PreCyte supports a healthy work-life balance and offers great benefits. www.precyte.net

Job Description

PreCyte is seeking a bioinformatician to work with a small and highly collaborative team to develop and apply the company's targeted blood-based diagnostic technology for early detection of Alzheimer's disease and lung cancer. The primary role of the bioinformatician will be to analyze RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) based gene expression data, and develop disease classifiers using machine learning approaches. They will work effectively as a team with lab technicians, systems biologists and other computational biologists to optimize the cell-based assay, gene expression analysis and disease classifiers.

Responsibilities:

• Analyze gene expression data (including RNA-seq, Nanostring™ and Fluidigm™ data) to identify differentially expressed genes, exons, and other transcripts

• Implement machine learning solutions for feature selection and disease classification

• Interface with researchers to identify biomarkers and uncover disease mechanisms

• Run large-scale computational experiments

• assist in development of protocols for liquid handling robots

Qualifications

Precyte is a dynamic startup, and the bioinformatics scientist position demands a diverse skill set that will come from continuous on-the-job training. We are looking for someone with a strong analytical background interested in developing new skills and cutting edge technology.

Basic Qualifications:

• A degree in bioinformatics, biomedical engineering, computer science, computational biology, statistics, mathematics, or a related field

• Experience using machine learning tools on large data sets

• Machine learning programming expertise in R, or Python

Preferred Skills / Abilities:

• Familiarity with data mining and pathway analysis tools (e.g. GSEA, Ingenuity)

• Command-line software development experience in Linux or OSx

• Programming / scripting languages such as Python, BASH, and C#

• NGS data processing/analysis pipeline building

• Multi-node, multi-core programming for cluster-based / cloud computing

• Proficiency with R

• Communication skills for interacting with both wet-lab and computational biologist

• Biomarker discovery

• Database design/management

• Graph databases

• Knowledge based database design

• R Shiny, Tableau or other interactive tool building

• Classifier feature selection and feature engineering

Other Job Details: PreCyte is an equal opportunity employer to all employees and job applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or gender expression, national origin, disability or veteran status. PreCyte also complies with all applicable national, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.