Bioinformatics Scientist

About the Role

The Bioinformatics Scientist will provide support services to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) within the National Institutes of Health, delivering computational and analytic expertise to advance research projects.

Responsibilities

• Generate and optimize programs and scripts for data analysis, including creating algorithms and computational infrastructure for organizing and parsing large, complex datasets.
• Provide broad-based programming and analytic support for diverse bioinformatic and research projects.
• Install, troubleshoot, and run open-source and commercial scientific software on various platforms.
• Perform computations and analyses on research data, interpreting results to derive biological meaning.
• Write custom programs and algorithms to support data analyses and discovery.
• Collaborate with scientists to design, analyze, manage, and interpret all types of data, advising bench scientists on experimental design and troubleshooting.
• Design and execute computational experiments, and assist in planning experiments and data analysis for internal and collaborative projects.
• Recommend appropriate computational tools for testing scientific hypotheses and reaching valid conclusions.
• Record observations, report results at weekly laboratory meetings, and maintain detailed documentation of analyses.
• Attend scientific and programming meetings, compile comprehensive notes, and organize/edit meeting reports.
• Prepare scientific reports, progress reports, tables, graphs, and slides; conduct literature searches and report findings.
• Devise novel statistical analysis methods for collected data and evaluate results for validity and scientific significance.
• Create novel programs and algorithms to facilitate knowledge discovery in large, complex datasets.
• Participate in designing new protocols involving computational methods and developing/maintaining bioinformatics tools, scripts, and pipelines.
• Research and review literature to retrieve targeted clinical or scientific information, including novel statistical methods.
• Collaborate with staff to review data acquisition, quality control, and management procedures, analyzing data cleaning and harmonization needs.
• Identify new tools and resources for reaching biologically meaningful conclusions.
• Develop new computational tools in collaboration with experimentalists and computational biologists to answer research questions.
• Provide training, technical support, and hands-on workshops on bioinformatics tools, including updates and version control.
• Instruct staff, students, and new investigators in computational analysis techniques and laboratory procedures.
• Work with an interdisciplinary team to apply computational data analysis approaches for biological discoveries.
• Collaborate with group members on data collection experiments and interact with staff and external collaborators.
• Design models summarizing/explaining experimental data in collaboration with biologists, statisticians, and bioinformaticians.
• Present findings at group meetings, research conferences, and seminars; author publications resulting from projects.
• Prepare products and documentation related to analyses, literature reviews, and research findings for reports and papers.