Career Center

A post-doctoral position is immediately available for a biostatistician or computational biologist in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology at the Columbia University Medical Center to study breast cancer health disparities.  The position will emphasize studying the underlying biology of differences in disease occurrence and outcome in breast cancer and the influence, of race, ethnicity, and genetic ancestry.  These NIH-funded research programs will have an integrated focus on multiple different tissue-based biomarkers to analyze 4 independent breast cancer cohorts complete with clinicopathological information. The breast cancer cohorts to be studied include a multi-racial rural cohort, a multi-racial urban cohort, a multi-ethnic metropolitan cohort, and a multiethnic cohort from East Africa.  The focus will be on quantitative biomarker association studies based on profiling of breast cancer tissues using quantitative immunohistochemistry-based proteomics, deep learning and artificial intelligence-based analysis of morphological tissue profiles using digital pathology,  single-cell based spatial gene expression analysis using in situ RNA hybridization, protein-complex profiling utilizing proximity ligation assays, combined with RNA-seq based gene expression,  whole exome sequencing-based mutational profiling, and epigenetic profiling of the patient tissues. The focus is on both intrinsic tumor properties and patient-specific differences in the tumor immune microenvironment. The research program will integrate the biological and genetic assessment of patient tissues with environmental exposures to define linkages with social determinants of health (SDOH) and how the SDOH and tumor biology intertwine to determine specific disparities in tumor burden and outcome based on race, ethnicity, and genetic ancestry.  In projects involving functional biomarkers research, experimental investigation will include thorough in vitro, in vivo, and patient tissue-based data streams to develop new perspectives that will improve breast cancer diagnosis, patient treatment stratification, and prevention/intervention strategies aimed at reducing breast cancer health disparities.  

At CUIMC, we stand together because diverse experiences, perspective, and values enrich every dimension of our work. Join our team and see how your unique skills and experiences can create a real impact by changing lives.

Job Function:

• Experience in biostatistics and/or bioinformatics or other methods/approaches in computational biology of biomarking profiling and survival curve analysis, basic interpretation of clinicopathological data
• Strong desire to work on fundamental translational research questions in cancer biology, including gene regulation, chromatin biology, and their influence on the tumor microenvironment. 
• A background in immunology is desirable but not required. 
• History of an ability to independently drive a project forward in a team-based interactive environment
• Willingness to provide mentorship to junior lab members are highly desirable.  
• Cell based assays in mammalian cells( proliferations, growth, death, apoptosis, senesence
• Recombinant DNA technology
• Mammalian tissue culture
• Western blotting
• Immunoprecipitation assays
• Cellular transformation assays.
• Immunohistochemistry

Minimum Skills Required:

• Programing in R
• Programing in Python
• Programing in Matlabs
• Strata, SAS, SPSS
• Excel spreadsheet based simple graphing and MYSQL database analysis.
• Familiarity with cloud-based computing.

Minimum Education Requirements:

•  Ph.D.  or  M.D. equivalent in areas of biochemistry, cancer biology, cell & molecular biology, or related field with extensive experience in biostatistics and/or bioinformatics or other methods/approaches in computational biology.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in Immunology
• Familiarity with Halo Software
• Familiarity with  Visiopharm Software
• Familiarity with Leica Image Scope Software
• Familiarity with QUPATH Software
• Experience in Deep Learning Neural Networks program (i.e. Tensor Flow; resnet, etc. )

Hiring Salary Range: 

• Postdoctoral Research Scientist: $68,000 - $72,000

Columbia University is an Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Pay Transparency Disclosure

The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, and training.  The above hiring range represents the University's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.

About Columbia University

Columbia University is one of the world's most important centers of research and at the same time a distinctive and distinguished learning environment for undergraduates and graduate students in many scholarly and professional fields. The University recognizes the importance of its location in New York City and seeks to link its research and teaching to the vast resources of a great metropolis. It seeks to attract a diverse and international faculty and student body, to support research and teaching on global issues, and to create academic relationships with many countries and regions. It expects all areas of the university to advance knowledge and learning at the highest level and to convey the products of its efforts to the world.

Connections working at Columbia University