University of Colorado | CU Anschutz Medical Campus

Department of Biomedical Informatics

Research Assistant Professor

Position #00804718 – Requisition #28263

* Applications are accepted electronically ONLY at www.cu.edu/cu-careers

The University of Colorado has a requirement for COVID-19 vaccinations and full completion thereof by 9/1/21 or upon start date.  Information regarding this requirement, and exemptions can be found at:

Anschutz: https://www.ucdenver.edu/docs/librariesprovider284/default-document-library/3000-general-admission/3012---covid-19-vaccination-requirement-and-compliance.pdf?sfvrsn=4e9df3ba_2

Denver: https://www.ucdenver.edu/coronavirus

Exemptions vary by campus location/department.

Campus/Unit-Specific Exemptions:

• Anschutz Campus – Exemptions are allowed for medical or religious reasons.
• Denver Campus - Exemptions are allowed for medical, religious, or personal reasons.
• Consolidated/Central Services Administration – Will follow Anschutz policy on exemptions.

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus seeks individuals with demonstrated commitment to creating an inclusive learning and working environment. We value the ability to engage effectively with students, faculty and staff of diverse backgrounds.

The Department of Biomedical Informatics has an opening for a full-time Research Assistant Professor. 

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is a world-class medical destination at the forefront of transformative science, medicine, education and patient care. The campus encompasses the University of Colorado health professional schools, more than 60 centers and institutes, and two nationally ranked independent hospitals - UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital  and Children's Hospital Colorado  - that treat more than two million adult and pediatric patients each year. Innovative, interconnected and highly collaborative, the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus delivers life-changing treatments, patient care and professional training and conducts world-renowned research fueled by over $650 million in research grants. For more information, visit www.cuanschutz.edu .

Translational and Integrative Sciences Laboratory (TISLab)

Directed by Dr. Melissa Haendel, the Translational and Integrative Sciences Laboratory (TISLab) is part of Department of Biomedical Informatics and the University of Colorado School of Medicine. We are an interdisciplinary program that provides expert advice and development on data standards and ontologies, data integration technologies, and semantic bioinformatics methods. An ontology is a formal representation about a set of concepts and the relationships between those concepts within a given domain. TISLab serves the CU-Anschutz and global research communities in support of their data management and analysis needs, and performs pivotal roles in coordinating community development of metadata and ontology standards for biomedical data integration, interrogation, and dissemination.

Nature of Work:

The TISLab seeks a full-time (1.0 FTE) Research Track Assistant Professor to carry out research in the area of biomedical data science. The Research Track Assistant Professor will join a highly interactive, supportive, and interdisciplinary group of faculty, staff scientists, postdoctoral fellows, and students and enjoy access to state-of-the-art equipment and facilities on the Anschutz Medical Campus.

The Assistant Professor will contribute to biocuration efforts for the Translational and Integrative Science Lab (TISLab). This position reports to Nicole Vasilevsky within the TISLab.

The TISLab strives to promote research innovations and education through semantically enabled technologies for data management and publication, research reproducibility, and the building of novel tools for biomedical data exploration. This position works to contribute to the development and application of semantic technologies to facilitate new knowledge discovery and promote scientific reproducibility, with wide applicability in a number of NIH-funded projects including the including the Monarch Initiative and the Phenomics First project.

As a member of the Translational and Integrative Sciences Laboratory, the primary duties of the Biocurator are to (1) Contribute to curation efforts and ontology development of biomedical ontologies, including community coordination and collaboration with associated ontologies, (2) Support open science initiatives, especially where they are relevant to University of Colorado quality data sharing; (3) Promote innovation and efficiencies in data management and perform education, outreach, and collaborate with faculty, staff, and students; (4) Develop biomedical ontologies based on community standards; (5) Perform biocuration of datasets relating to the above-mentioned projects; (6) Assist with data science curriculum development; (6) Participate in writing documentation, manuscripts, grants, and reports.

Assistant Professor’s are expected to contribute to the lab's culture of creativity, integrity, courage, and openness. We expect all faculty to share their own methodological advances and biological discoveries at both national and international venues. The TISLab Lab encourages compassionate candidates with diverse backgrounds and career aspirations to apply.

The candidate would be expected to contribute to a diverse portfolio of research undertaken by faculty in the Department of Biomedical Informatics, including the labs of Professors Haendel, Greene, and Hunter. Other duties include contributing to publications, submission of grants and funding applications, and potential commercialization opportunities, as well as partnerships and collaborations with community-wide efforts aimed at promoting open, integrated, and rigorous practices in research and scholarly communication. This position may be eligible for remote or remote/office flex work.

Professional Field:

Biocuration, Ontology development, Biomedical Informatics, Knowledge Representation, and Scientific Software

Supervision Received:

The Research Track Assistant Professor will report to Nicole Vasilevsky.

Nicole Vasilevsky will mentor, provide research direction, and train the faculty member in effective management and scientific approaches, and will provide personalized mentorship and opportunities to fulfill the specific career goals as mutually established.

Supervision Exercised:

The Research Track Assistant Professor will supervise other employees. This individual will be responsible for the daily management, supervision, training and evaluation of personnel (such as graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and professional research assistants) whose positions are funded by research grants on which s/he is the principal investigator. These employee(s) will report directly to the faculty member.

Examples of Work Performed:

The responsibilities for this position include, but are not limited to, the following:

Research 75%

• The primary duty of this position is to contribute to research studies in the field of biomedical and translational research, with a focus on the development and application of biomedical ontologies, and perform biocuration of biological data sets to support data integration and harmonization to enhance data accessibility, retrieval and the derivation of new knowledge
• Collaboratively develop ontologies and data models to represent research and clinically-related activities, concepts, roles, and contributions; investigate associations and drivers for these concepts in biomedicine; and develop relevant documentation
• Work with ontologists, bioinformaticians, and software engineers at University of Colorado, and other consortium sites to build and enhance biomedical ontologies
• Leverage research activities to generate additional funding and collaborate with University of Colorado for extramural research teams
• Engage in program development activities in support of the Department of Biomedical Informatics programmatic and research goals

Scholarship: 15%

• Carry out research in translational data science. This position is expected to generate regular and recurring scholarly outcomes derived from basic or translational extramurally funded research. Outcomes may include but are not limited to:
  • Publications in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, videos, other scientific or educational materials
  • Produce and disseminate data science research, education and outreach infrastructure products such as data resources, curated datasets, and software tools that have demonstrated impact and that are subject to peer validation
  • Invited lectures at other universities or scientific meetings
  • Presentations at scientific conferences, in poster or podium formats at state, national and international levels

Service 10%:

• Provide service to professional organizations and appropriate state, regional, national and international scientific, conference, advisory, or funding committees
• Provide service to CU through committee service, guest-lectures, and research partnerships as appropriate and/or assigned by the Department Head or Director
• Provide service in the form of science education and outreach to the community

Salary and Benefits: 

The salary range (or hiring range) has been established at $88,000 to $108,000. 

The salary of the finalist(s) selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, internal equity, experience, education, specialty and training.

The above salary range (or hiring range ) represents the University’s good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.

Your total compensation goes beyond the number on your paycheck. The University of Colorado provides generous leave, health plans and retirement contributions that add to your bottom line.

 Benefits: https://www.cu.edu/employee-services/benefits

Total Compensation Calculator: http://www.cu.edu/node/153125

Diversity and Equity:

The University will provide reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities throughout the employment application process. To request an accommodation pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, please contact the Human Resources ADA Coordinator at hr.adacoordinator@ucdenver.edu ?.

The University of Colorado Denver | Anschutz Medical Campus is committed to recruiting and supporting a diverse student body, faculty and administrative staff. The university strives to promote a culture of inclusiveness, respect, communication and understanding. We encourage applications from women, ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, persons within the LGBTQ+ community, and all veterans. The University of Colorado is committed to diversity and equality in education and employment.

The University of Colorado Denver | Anschutz Medical Campus is dedicated to ensuring a safe and secure environment for our faculty, staff, students and visitors. To assist in achieving that goal, we conduct background investigations for all prospective employees.

Minimum Qualifications:

Applicants must meet minimum qualifications at the time of hire.

• Education: This position requires graduation from an accredited college or university with a DVM or PhD in a relevant scientific discipline such biology, animal sciences, zoology, or closely related field
• Must be a CU employee

Preferred Qualifications: 

• A deep interest in and excitement about working with veterinary and biological data
• Interest and knowledge of canine genetics and veterinary records standards
• Demonstrated experience using software/querying languages such as Python, SQL, or R for clinical data extraction, transformation, or other analytics uses
• A track record of productivity in the practice of research as evidenced through the development and dissemination of software, data and knowledgebases, preprints, and/or publications.
• Contributions to research or practice-based collaborations

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Ability to work independently and effectively with others as part of a multidisciplinary scientific team
• Strong verbal, written, and interpersonal skills (especially via teleconferencing venues).  Demonstrated ability to work productively in teams.
• Motivated and excited to learn. A successful candidate should be able to adapt to new environments, approaches, tools and, when necessary, be able to extend approaches for a new purpose or, if necessary, develop an entirely new approach to solve a problem.
• Ability to build and manage a diverse and inclusive research team comprising members with complementary skills and levels of experience.
• Self-directed:  A successful candidate needs to be able to set their own schedule and goals but, at the same time, is willing and able to ask for guidance and assistance when uncertainty and blockers arise.
• Communicative: Able to communicate effectively with geographically-distributed collaborators. This includes email and slack, but also importantly code and dependency documentation.
• Collaborative: Contributions to open source software development and informatics projects within the Center and with members from diverse organizations from around the world.
• Dedicated to diversity: Participation in activities within the laboratory, department, the university, and the broader scientific community that promote the success and welfare for all people. 
• Committed to quality: This position will require a focus on documentation and quality assurance.