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The Health and Medical Sciences Programme at Turing delivers research into the theory and methods of AI, statistics, and data analytics underpinning medical and health applications that will enable scientists to do better science, without compromising respect for privacy and patient trust.

Hoffman La-Roche (Roche) has been committed to improving lives since it was founded in 1896 in Basel, Switzerland. Today, Roche creates innovative medicines and diagnostic tests that help millions of patients globally and was one of the first companies to bring targeted treatments to patients.

In 2021 the Alan Turing Institute and Roche initiated a world-leading industry and academic partnership in advanced analytics strategic focused on enabling the transformative benefits of personalized healthcare to become a reality for patients around the world.

The Turing-Roche Strategic Partnership covers multiple activities, with the “North Star” of developing new data science methods to investigate large, complex, clinical and healthcare datasets to better understand how and why patients respond differently to treatment, and how treatment can be improved. Understanding such “treatment heterogeneity” is a problem at the forefront of modern medicine and is an essential first step toward the ambitious goal of developing a personalized healthcare.

ROLE PURPOSE

The Turing-Roche partnership is now recruiting two Research Associates / Senior Research Associates to investigate the development of methodologies and approaches for learning from multimodal data for clinical applications, to answer high impact clinical questions in alignment with the Turing-Roche “North Star”, however we also welcome interested candidates with a strong AI/ML or computational/statistical analysis background who may not have specifically applied their work to clinical or healthcare problems previously.

Complex clinical decisions, such as diagnosis, prognostication and treatment selection are rarely made from consideration of a single data modality and typically involve numerous data sources, such as clinical histories, basic physiological measurements (heart rate, blood pressure, BMI, etc.), blood test results, images obtained from x-rays, MRI scans etc. and tissue sample examinations. Increasingly, complex high-dimensional data, such as genomic information, is also being used. However, when making a clinical decision, doctors typically collect data in a precise order, aiming to obtain the answer to their question with minimal harm to the patient, and at lowest cost to the hospital.

When required, integrating all this information into clinical decisions requires teams of specialists. This process can be highly expensive both financially and in terms of specialist time. AI has the potential to streamline this clinical decision-making process, by providing rapid assessment of diverse data modalities.

The successful candidate will work closely with an expert team of academic and industrial data scientists and clinicians and will have freedom to develop their own programme of work in this area, under supervision. Topics of particular interest include: (1) developing an information theoretic framework to integrate multimodal data, by addressing questions such as: to what extent does knowledge of one data modality, confer clinically useable information about another? (2) developing machine learning tools to predict one data source from another, addressing questions such as: to what extent can we predict one modality from another (e.g., to predict invasive tests from non-invasive tests)? (3) developing a theoretically rigorous theory for data fusion, addressing questions such as: when is it better to integrate data before learning, and when is it better to train models separately and integrate the results after learning?

Whilst we are interested in developing methodology and approaches of the integration of all modalities of data, we anticipate our initial focus will be on the integration of imaging and genomics data, so experience of working with one of other of these data types will be advantageous.

The successful candidate will also contribute to developing and shaping the direction of research in the Turing-Roche partnership, including working with Turing and Roche scientists on other established research projects. The successful candidate will form part of the Turing’s Health and Medical Sciences programme team. They will work closely with colleagues at the Turing and advanced analytics leaders and scientists at Roche and will have the opportunity for regular interactions with the partnerships’ advisory group of senior academic experts.

As well as working closely with colleagues at the Roche site at Welwyn within the UK, they will be supported to travel internationally to collaborate with Roche colleagues at other sites (particularly, San Francisco and Basel).

The successful candidate will be expected to spend some time working at one or more of the Roche sites to develop relationships and an increased understanding of the pharmaceutical industry.

This is a stand-out opportunity to join a prestigious, national research institute and shape its agenda at an important and exciting time in its development. Working within the partnership will give the successful candidate visibility of many facets of the pharmaceutical industry and support to develop a network of contacts in both academia and industry. As well as being exposed to a variety of analytical methodologies and applications within the partnership they will also have the freedom to develop their own area of aligned research under the mentorship from senior leaders in both academia and industry.

DUTIES AND AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

• To assist with the development and delivery of an ambitious programme of research in the area of multimodal data integration, aligned with the aims and objectives of the partnership.
• To undertake high-quality independent research, which will support the partnership in its goal of understanding patient heterogeneity.
• Write or contribute to publications or disseminate research findings using other appropriate media.
• To communicate research outputs to diverse stakeholders, through conferences, events, meetings, and press opportunities as appropriate.
• To work closely with the Turing and Roche communications teams to disseminate and publicise key findings, communicating complex ideas through a variety of mediums.
• To travel as necessary to present work and meet with external collaborators.
• Cultivate strong relationships with internal stakeholders,
• Drive collaboration with academic experts and broader research partners from across the Turing, Roche and the wider Turing / project community.

If appointed at a Senior Research Associate level the post holder will have additional responsibilities, as outlined in the attached job description and person specification.

• A PhD (or equivalent experience and/or qualifications) in a relevant area which will include either a computational focus like Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Engineering, etc. or a biomedical modelling focus like Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Biomedical Engineering, etc. or similar inter-disciplinary subjects.
• Research Assistant level: must be near completion of PhD in a relevant area which will include either a computational focus like Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Engineering, etc. or a biomedical modelling focus like Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Biomedical Engineering, etc. or similar inter-disciplinary subjects.
• Substantial experience in statistical modelling and/or data analytics on significant real-world problems, including experience in learning from data from multiple sources and types.
• Substantial experience of using modern statistical programming languages (such as R and Python)
• Ability to understand and apply the principles of reproducible data science
• Experience in working with modern artificial intelligence technologies
• Experience of developing and documenting analysis workflows for scientific research projects

For the Senior Research Associate position there are additional requirements. Please see the job description for a full breakdown of the scope of the role, duties and responsibilities and person specification.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

If you are interested in this opportunity, please click the apply button below. You will need to register on the applicant portal and complete the application form including your CV and covering letter. If you have questions about the role or would like to apply using a different format, please contact us on 020 3862 3536 or email [email protected].

If you are applying for more than one role at the Turing, please note that only one Cover Letter can be visible on your profile at one time. If you wish to apply for multiple roles and do not want to overwrite your existing Cover Letter, please apply for the role using the button below and forward your additional cover letter directly to [email protected] quoting the job title.

If you are an internal applicant and wish to apply, please send your CV and Cover Letter directly to [email protected] and your application will be considered.

Please ensure that you include a cover letter with your application.

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: Sunday 29 October 2023 at 23:59 (London UK BST)

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early or to interview suitable candidates before the closing date if enough applications are received.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

These full-time posts are offered on a fixed term basis for 2 years.

If appointed as Research Associate, the annual salary range would be £42,893 to £48,510 depending on experience.

If appointed as Senior Research Associate the annual salary range would be £53,576 to £55,125 depending on experience.

Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as Research Assistant at a salary of £40,148 per annum.

In addition to the annual salary we offer excellent benefits, including flexible working and family friendly policies, https://www.turing.ac.uk/work-turing/why-work-turing/employee-benefits

The Alan Turing Institute is based at the British Library, in the heart of London’s Knowledge Quarter. We expect staff to come to our office at least 4 days per month. Some roles may require more days in the office; the hiring manager will be able to confirm this during the interview.

EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

The Alan Turing Institute is committed to creating an environment where diversity is valued and everyone is treated fairly. In accordance with the Equality Act, we welcome applications from anyone who meets the specific criteria of the post regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

We are committed to building a diverse community and would like our leadership team to reflect this. We therefore welcome applications from the broadest spectrum of backgrounds.

We are committed to making sure our recruitment process is accessible and inclusive. This includes making reasonable adjustments for candidates who have a disability or long-term condition. Please contact us at [email protected] to find out how we can assist you.

Please note all offers of employment are subject to obtaining and retaining the right to work in the UK and satisfactory pre-employment security screening which includes a DBS Check.

Full details on the pre-employment screening process can be requested from [email protected].