Principal Bioinformatician 

• Job Ref: NBC/26/34
• Duration: 2 years fixed term (in the first instance)
• Salary: In the range of £37,638 - £52,000 per annum (dependent upon experience)

About the role:

We are looking for a skilled and motivated Computational Biologist to join the Bioinformatics and Biostatistics (BBS) Team within the CRUK National Biomarker Centre (NBC). With national and international colleagues, the primary objective of this role is to innovate and apply multi-omics approaches to build a ‘molecular atlas’ of rare cancers. The secondary objective is to discover candidate biomarkers of treatment response or resistance and disease progression in rare cancers harbouring targeted oncogenic alterations from patients enrolled in the pioneering DETERMINE Trial.

The mission of the internationally recognised NBC is to discover, develop, validate and qualify biomarkers in preclinical and clinical studies and clinical trials that detect cancer earlier and predict and monitor therapy responses to support optimised treatment of patients with cancer. Agnostic to cancer type, our advanced research programmes develop biomarkers in tissue and less invasive clinical samples such as blood (liquid biopsy). We undertake data analysis and interpretation deploying sophisticated bioinformatic and artificial intelligence solutions to integrate multi-modal laboratory and clinical data. 

Within this role you will collaborate with clinicians, biologists, bioinformaticians and computational scientists. Your primary task will be to analyse bulk and spatial molecular datasets obtained from patient samples. You will work in close partnership with wet-lab biologists to develop and apply multi-omics computational analyses, with emphasis of clinically relevant aspects of liquid biopsy applications for rare cancers. The role sits within an international, multi-site Cancer Research UK funded programme, DETERMINE TRANSLATIONAL. 

The role involves analysis of multimodal data sets generated within the National Biomarker Centre (NBC) and by its collaborators. This includes genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, immunological and imaging data from patient blood and tissue samples. You will apply statistical and machine learning approaches, including modern AI methodologies where appropriate, to identify molecular signatures associated with treatment response, resistance and disease progression. You will have access to state-of-the-art facilities at the NBC and the CRUK Manchester Institute, including their high-performance computing resources.

About you:

You should have a PhD in Bioinformatics/Computational Biology, Statistics, Computer Science (or related discipline), OR a postgraduate degree in Bioinformatics/Computational Biology, Statistics or Computer Science (or related discipline) along with significant relevant bioinformatics/computational biology research experience. You will have significant experience developing and/or applying machine learning/AI application to multimodal data and experience of developing and/or applying appropriate machine learning or advanced statistical approaches for the analysis of high-throughput data sets. You will also have demonstrable experience writing code for robust and reproducible analysis and have a strong comprehension of molecular biology. Familiarity with approaches for analysing and integrating diverse molecular data types, such as epigenomics, genomics, or proteomics data is desirable. Technical expertise in raw NGS data processing using bioinformatics pipelines or the Linux command line is also desirable, as is experience in advanced AI approaches for analysing molecular or imaging data. Prior experience within a cancer research environment and some understanding of cancer biology and biomarker development is desirable but not essential.

You will have excellent communication skills and the ability to converse successfully with interdisciplinary collaborators. Experience of multidisciplinary teamwork would be beneficial.

Why choose Cancer Research UK National Biomarker Centre? 

The Cancer Research UK National Biomarker Centre (https://cruknbc.org/) is a globally recognised, highly specialised translational research centre within The University of Manchester (www.manchester.ac.uk), juxtaposed and closely aligned with the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute (www.cruk.manchester.ac.uk), and core-funded by Cancer Research UK (www.cancerresearchuk.org), the largest independent cancer research organisation in the world. The NBC is situated within bespoke facilities within the Paterson Building, a £150 million flagship purpose-built biomedical research centre directly attached to The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in South Manchester (www.christie.nhs.uk), one of the largest cancer treatment centres in Europe. These factors combine to provide an exceptional environment in which to pursue basic, translational and clinical research programmes and a perfect location for a cancer biomarker centre. As a bridge between discovery science and clinical research, we are highly collaborative across Manchester, nationally and internationally.

How to apply? 

To apply for this position please visit our website: https://apps.cruk.manchester.ac.uk/recruitment/candidate/searchvacancies

For any informal enquiries about this post, please contact Dr Vsevolod Makeev via: seva.makeev@cruk.manchester.ac.uk  

Closing date: Sunday 04 October 2026

Please ensure you detail the names of three referees and ensure you submit your application before the closing date specified.

Please note this vacancy will close for applications at 18:00 hours on the closing date specified