英国癌症研究中心招聘影像处理方向博士后

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, is one of the world’s most influential cancer research institutes, with an outstanding record of achievement dating back more than 100 years. We provided the first convincing evidence that DNA damage is the basic cause of cancer, laying the foundation for the now universally accepted idea that cancer is a genetic disease. Today, ICR leads the world at isolating cancer-related genes and discovering new targeted drugs for personalised cancer treatment. Under the leadership of our Chief Executive, Professor Paul Workman FMedSci, the ICR is ranked as the UK’s leading academic research centre. Together with our partner The Royal Marsden, we are rated in the top four cancer centres globally. The ICR is committed to attracting, developing and retaining the best minds in the world to join us in our mission – to make the discoveries that defeat cancer.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an image analysis postdoc to be based in the ICR and collaborate with leading breast oncology and cancer evolution teams in Duke University and Arizona State University. ICR came first in the Times Higher Education league table of UK university research quality compiled from the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014). The post will be part of the international efforts to study how breast tumour heterogeneity influences progression from benign to invasive tumors and the eventual relapse leading to cancer deaths. He/she will lead the image analysis component and develop new image analysis tools to aid the identification of cell types in breast tumor histology sections stained with H&E and multiplex immunohistochemistry. These tools will be used for analysing hundreds of samples generated from the project.

The main focus of the Yuan lab is to quantify tumor heterogeneity and study how it shapes cancer evolution and treatment resistance. We have pioneered the use of automated histology analysis and spatial statistics for characterizing the tumour microenvironment. Together with a renowned breast oncologist Prof Shelley Hwang in Duke University and Prof Carlo Maley in Arizona State University, a world leader in the field of cancer evolution, we aim to deliver this highly inter-disciplinary project that, if successful, will change the way we monitor breast cancer progress and offer new treatment strategies.

The successful post holder will provide image analysis expertise and perform segmentation, classification and performance evaluation to identify different types of cells in histology breast tumour images and complement parallel efforts in next-generation sequencing. The successful candidate will enjoy working in the interdisciplinary fields, excel in coordinating between programming and exploring new research areas through collaborations, be a fast learner and have interests in different scientific subjects and research areas.

Applicants must hold a PhD in quantitative sciences such as Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Engineering, or Statistics, and have more than two years of experience in image processing. Knowledge/experience in biology or histology is desirable but not essential.

The appointment is expected to start in October 2016 and will be on a Fixed Term Contract for 3 years, with a starting salary in the range of £29,517 to £42,187 p.a. inclusive dependent on postdoctoral experience. The successful candidate will be based in Sutton, Surrey.

Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Yinyin Yuan (Yinyin.Yuan@icr.ac.uk). Applications must be submitted online via ICR website at: http://www.icr.ac.uk/jobsearch, job reference number 1530814.