Assistant Specialist Position – Jing Wen Lab Part-time

Assistant Specialist Position – Jing Wen Lab

UCLA's Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics is seeking to fill a part-time Assistant Project Scientist position. The Assistant Project Scientist candidate will lead research at the intersection of data science and translational biomedicine, focusing on molecular tracking of HIV infection and AI-enabled enzyme therapeutic design. The Assistant Project Scientist position is a 12-month non-Senate position.

Specific responsibilities for this position include but are not limited to:

1. Lead bioinformatic analysis of next-generation sequencing datasets to perform barcoded viral clonal tracking and infected-cell traffic analysis in humanized mouse and non-human primate models, integrating longitudinal and tissue-compartment data to define reservoir dynamics and clonal evolution.
2. Develop and implement a generative machine learning platform to identify key immunosuppressive metabolites, map metabolic bottlenecks, and prioritize candidate enzyme therapeutics to overcome tumor-associated immune resistance.
3. Contribute to grant development, including experimental design, data analysis, preliminary data generation, and preparation of figures and technical sections for NIH and other funding agencies.
4. Prepare and co-author manuscripts for peer-reviewed scientific journals, including data interpretation, figure development, and revision in response to reviewer feedback

Minimum qualifications:

1. Ph.D. (or equivalent doctoral degree) in computational biology, bioinformatics, systems biology, data science, or a closely related field.
2. A minimum of four years of relevant postdoctoral or professional research experience, as applicable.

The shared values of the DGSOM are expressed in the Cultural North Star, which was developed by members of our community and affirms our unswerving commitment to doing what's right, making things better, and being kind. These are the standards to which we hold ourselves, and one another. Please read more about this important DGSOM program at https://medschool.ucla.edu/cultural-north-star.

The David Geffen School of Medicine Anti-racism roadmap is our co-created path to ensuring racial justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. We are committed to actively dismantling structural racism in our organization as described in more detail at: https://medschool.ucla.edu/anti-racism.

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected status under state or federal law.