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Position Description

The Au Lab at the Jules Stein Eye Institute, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), led by Adrian C. Au, M.D., Ph.D., is seeking an Assistant Project Scientist to lead biomarker discovery and drug development initiatives. This role involves driving translational research, contributing to high-impact publications and grant proposals, and mentoring junior researchers to advance precision therapies for retinal disease. The ideal candidate should hold a Ph.D. in bioinformatics, computational biology, or a related field and demonstrate expertise in translational studies.

Previous experience with the following is highly desirable:

• Data Storage – Managing large-scale -omics data storage across multiple platforms, maintaining inventory and record-keeping for sequencing data and intermediate files, and facilitating data uploads to online repositories upon publication.
• Data Processing – Handling Whole Exome Sequencing, RNA sequencing, and single-cell RNA sequencing data while utilizing version control (Git) and virtual environments (Conda, Docker containers) to streamline and enhance pipeline management.
• Data Analysis – Collaborating with experimentalists to determine appropriate analytical approaches to complement their experiments, optimizing pipeline-generated outputs, performing model fitting, conducting statistical tests, and visualizing data using R and/or Python.
• Experience with Large Datasets – Working with extensive genomic and clinical datasets, including UK Biobank (UKBB) and the All of Us Research Program, to support large-scale analyses.

Expectations

Under Dr. Au’s mentorship, the Assistant Project Scientist's research will focus on developing and implementing bioinformatic pipelines that integrate genetic data with high-resolution ophthalmic imaging to investigate the molecular and phenotypic basis of retinal disease. You will be responsible for curating and analyzing data from large-scale population genetics databases, building reproducible workflows for variant annotation and polygenic risk scoring, and establishing robust repositories to support both population-level and individual-level analyses. In parallel, you will work closely with the team to align genetic findings with imaging-based phenotypes using tools such as OCT segmentation and deep phenotyping frameworks. Your duties will also include contributing to manuscript preparation, mentoring junior lab members, and participating in academic activities such as seminars, grant development, and presentations at national and international meetings relevant to your expertise.

As a University employee, you will be required to comply with all applicable University policies and/or collective bargaining agreements, as may be amended from time to time. Federal, state, or local government directives may impose additional requirements.

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected status under state or federal law.

As a condition of employment, the finalist will be required to disclose if they are subject to any final administrative or judicial decisions within the last seven years determining that they committed any misconduct, are currently being investigated for misconduct, left a position during an investigation for alleged misconduct, or have filed an appeal with a previous employer.

• “Misconduct” means any violation of the policies or laws governing conduct at the applicant’s previous place of employment, including, but not limited to, violations of policies or laws prohibiting sexual harassment, sexual assault, or other forms of harassment, discrimination, dishonesty, or unethical conduct, as defined by the employer.
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