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Postdoc position available!

Are you ready to revolutionize our understanding of circular RNAs (circRNAs) and their role in heart disease? We’re seeking a highly motivated and talented computational biologist to join our team at the Jakobilab!

Be Part of a Cutting-Edge Research Environment

As a postdoctoral researcher in our lab, you’ll have the opportunity to contribute to the development of new features for circtools, our widely-used circRNA analysis software. You’ll work alongside world-class researchers and scientists who are passionate about advancing the field of circRNA research.

Responsibilities:

  • Design, implement, and validate novel algorithms and tools for analyzing circRNA expression, function, and interactions
  • Collaborate with experimentalists to integrate computational findings with wet-lab experiments
  • Analyze large-scale RNA sequencing datasets to identify key circRNAs involved in heart disease pathogenesis
  • Contribute to the development of new features for circtools
  • Disseminate research through publications and presentations at scientific conferences

Requirements:

  • PhD in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Computer Science, or a related field
  • Expertise in programming languages such as Python, R, or other relevant languages
  • Experience with next-generation sequencing data analysis and RNA biology
  • Strong communication and teamwork skills
  • A passion for pushing the boundaries of scientific discovery

Why Join Our Lab?

Our lab is committed to fostering a collaborative and inclusive research environment that values innovation, creativity, and teamwork. As a postdoctoral researcher in our lab, you’ll have access to cutting-edge resources, state-of-the-art facilities, and a supportive team of researchers who are dedicated to advancing the field of circRNA research.

How to Apply:

If you’re ready to join our dynamic team, please submit your CV and a brief statement of research interests via our application portal. We look forward to hearing from you!

circtools 2.0 released!

We are proud to release circtools 2.0 on GitHub and the accompanying paper on bioRxiv in collaboration with the Dieterich Lab.

Circtools 2.0 features 4 completely new modules for computational circular RNA research:

  • conservation module: enables users to perform circRNA conservation analysis in five widely studied animal model species: mouse, human, rat, pig, and dog.
  • padlock probe design: a specialized primer design tool tailored specifically for next-generation spatial transcriptomics technology.
  • nanopore module: requires sequencing reads that have been produced using the protocol outlined in Rahimi et al. (2021) and enables full-length circRNA detection.
  • metatool module: offers integration of circularRNA predictions from CIRIquant to boost recall rates for circRNA detection.

Invited presentation at the reImagine Health Symposium on Artificial Intelligence in Medical Practice and Research

Tobias was invited to present at the reImagine Health Symposium on Artificial Intelligence in Medical Practice and Research at The University of Arizona, College of Medicine Phoenix. Fantastic conference with great speakers, highlighting the importance as well as pitfalls of the use of AI in medical practise and research.

New bioinformatics course this fall semester

The new bioinformatics course (CTS 505, see teaching) serves as an introductory exploration into the fundamental principles, algorithms, and practical application of bioinformatics in hypothesis-driven research spanning basic and translational domains. The curriculum encompasses key protein and nucleotide alignment algorithms like BLAST and Smith-Waterman, essential public databases, RNA biology, and various approaches for DNA and RNA sequencing.

New circRNA benchmarking study shows circtools' high accuracy

A new, large-scale circRNA detection benchmarking studies has just been published in Nature Methods, including our circtools circRNA detection suite. The study is the largest to date including 16 circRNA detection tools. The paper is a very good read for everyone interested in optimizing circRNA detection accuracy and efficacy.

New paper published

Vivien Kmietczyk from the lab of Mirko Völkers in Heidelberg, Germany just published her newest paper, “Ythdf2 regulates cardiac remodeling through its mRNA target transcripts” in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology! Congratulations! In the study we found that m6A the reader protein Ythdf2 controls cardiac function and identified a novel mechanism how reader proteins control gene expression and cardiac function.