Postdoctoral Fellow
Postdoctoral Associate: Machine Learning in Computational Biology Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT Full-time
Impact the discovery of new disease therapies at the Carpenter laboratory (a.k.a. Imaging Platform). Join our vibrant, world-class, nonprofit biomedical research center, the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT!
Want to devote your expertise in machine learning to accelerate the pace at which new medicines are found? Our laboratory develops and applies methods for extracting quantitative information from high-throughput biological images. We are best known for the open-source CellProfiler project. CellProfiler is used by scientists around the world to quantify biological processes in images. Cited in 10,000+ scientific papers, it has led to potential therapeutics related to the Ebola virus, tuberculosis, AMKL, leukemic stem cells, and CCM.
We seek a researcher to join our efforts to glean insights from large collections of images. There is much more information present in microscopy images than is commonly perceived by eye. We harvest this information through image-based profiling, developing novel methods to characterize cellular populations at single-cell resolution to discover similarities and differences among cell treatments. This work has the potential to transform how both the targets and therapies for disease are identified.
We aim to revolutionize the process of drug discovery in several projects, including:
- Identifying the function of unknown genes and predicting mutation impact, for personalized medicine
- Predicting how new chemical compounds act in cells
- Repurposing existing drugs to new diseases
- Identifying new therapies for bipolar disorder or depression, based on cell morphology changes
- Predicting and classifying toxicity of compounds destined for clinical trials
Over the last few years, we developed the field’s leading image-based profiling assay, wrote review articles about the field, created an organization (CytoData Society) to build and maintain an active community, including hosting an annual symposium and hackathon fifth year in running (featured in Science), hosted the 2018 Data Science Bowl which was the largest Kaggle competition for social good in history. We launched a consortium of academic institutions and ten pharmaceutical companies to create a massive cell-imaging dataset of >1 billion cells responding to over 140,000 small molecules and genetic perturbations. We demonstrated that profiling can illuminate novel connections between genes, published papers building the foundation for using deep learning for profiling, and developed software libraries for supporting this research.
Ph.D. required, in a quantitative discipline such as Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Physics, Math. Machine learning and/or large scale data analysis experience is required, as is enthusiasm for biology or biomedicine. Must demonstrate outstanding personal initiative, communication skills, and the ability to work effectively as part of a team. In your cover letter, please describe your overall career interests and why this work would suit you, and what you would aim to learn. Apply online at Broad Careers (Job 3679).
About us: Our lab’s mission is to uncover biological knowledge by developing advanced methods to quantify and mine the rich information present in images. We love working as a team towards scientific goals: discovering the inner workings of biological systems and influencing patient treatment. We love making open-source software that impacts the world. We are conscientious and enjoy a professional, no-fuss environment, and are passionate about what we do while frowning on workaholism.