Research Advisor - Computational Biology

At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We are a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to our communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. We give our best effort to our work, and we put people first. We’re looking for people who are determined to make life better for people around the world.

Job title: Research Advisor – Computational Biology

Location: UK, Arlington Square, Bracknell

Reports to: Senior Director, Research

Hybrid/Remote: Hybrid

About Lilly:  

Lilly is a global healthcare leader that unites caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We were founded more than a century ago by a man committed to creating high-quality medicines that meet real needs, and today we remain true to that mission in all our work. Across the globe, Lilly employees work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. 

Role Overview

The Genetics and Bioinformatics team within Lilly Neuroscience focuses on analysing large-scale genetics and multi-omics data to uncover complex biological relationships, understand disease mechanisms, disease progression and translating multi-omics insights into actionable targets and biomarkers to accelerate the development of novel therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases and chronic pain. We are seeking a highly skilled computational biologist with a strong experience in leveraging AI/ML, deep learning and graph networks to drive the integration of genetics and multi-omics datasets. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated expertise in computational biology, with a solid understanding of advanced machine learning methods applied to knowledge graphs.

This role based at our UK Neuroscience Hub in Bracknell, offers the opportunity to lead strategic omics data integration initiatives. The candidate will work as part of a global team of bioinformaticians, statisticians, and data scientists to identify and integrate genomic data across several modalities with genetics to support the identification of novel targets and to understand disease mechanisms. The successful candidate will not only contribute to core discovery programs but will also help shape our long-term AI/ML strategy in neurodegeneration and chronic pain. The overall goal of the role is to discover biological insights that will translate into innovative new medicines for patients.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop analytical workflows using AI/ML algorithms and graph networks to integrate large-scale genetics and multi-omics data with the aim of gaining mechanistic understanding of disease processes and identifying therapeutic targets.
• Analyse large scale multi-omics data including transcriptomics, proteomics, single cell and spatial transcriptomics data from diverse sources, ensuring data quality and integrity.
• Design and implement predictive models to uncover causal relationship between genotype and multi-layer omics data, characterizing their influence on phenotypic outcomes.
• Spearhead AI/ML initiatives within the team, ensuring the integration of cutting-edge advancements in AI/ML, bioinformatics, and omics technologies to continuously enhance and optimize analytical pipelines.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including geneticists, biologists, data scientists, and software engineers to translate complex data into actionable biological insights.
• Communicate findings clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders through reports, presentations, and publications.
• Lead collaborations with external multi-disciplinary industry and academic teams.
• Provide support for experimental design and analysis of multi-omic data generated through internal and external collaborations.

Essential Qualification: -

• PhD in a relevant discipline such as computational biology, bioinformatics, systems biology, computer science with significant Industry and/or academic research experience.
• Extensive experience in analyzing and interpreting large-scale, high-dimensional omics datasets (bulk and single-cell RNA-Seq, spatial omics, proteomics and WES/WGS).
• Proven expertise in applying AI/ML techniques, including deep learning and graph-based approaches, to biological data, with a strong foundation in statistics and data science.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python and R, and hands-on experience in ML frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Scikit-learn) and workflow management tools (e.g., Nextflow, Snakemake).
• Experience in deploying and managing bioinformatics pipelines in cloud environments (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure) utilizing containerization tools like Docker.
• Demonstrated ability to integrate multi-modal biological data and extract actionable insights, contributing to disease understanding, target prioritization, or biomarker discovery in complex disease areas.
• Experience working in multi-disciplinary team and ability to communicate complex ideas and findings to a broader audience.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.

EMBRACING DIVERSITY:

Embracing diversity is at the core of our long-held value of respect for people. It is the lens through which we understand and respond to the unique needs of the millions of individuals who depend on our medicines.

For us, embracing diversity means understanding, respecting, and valuing differences, including but not limited to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. The greatest measure of our diversity efforts is our ability to attract and retain exceptional employees who feel comfortable in a culture that supports them being themselves.

Lilly is dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities to actively engage in the workforce, ensuring equal opportunities when vying for positions. If you require accommodation to submit a resume for a position at Lilly, please complete the accommodation request form (https://careers.lilly.com/us/en/workplace-accommodation) for further assistance. Please note this is for individuals to request an accommodation as part of the application process and any other correspondence will not receive a response.

Lilly does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.

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