Master thesis project in Computational RNA Biology

Interested students are welcome to join the RNA biology group at CGC (Chemical Genomics Center) of the Max-Planck Society in Dortmund under the supervision of Dr. Jochen Imig to carry out a research practical or master thesis.'

At Imig group we are interested on discovering long non-coding RNA/miRNA networks controlling cancer metastasis. We use different methods to study these networks such as CRISPR-Cas9 screening and RNA immunoprecipitation (in particular miR-CLIP). We also aim to decode the melanoma editome by diverse bioinformatic approaches. We like to identify hot-spots of RNA editing in particular Adenosine to Inosine conversions in mRNAs and miRNAs or target sites thereof. The functional consequences of this modification we would like to address in the context of melanoma progression and metastasis.

AT CGC we work closely with four pharmaceutical companies (Merck, AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Roche) that sponsor our projects. 

 Qualifications:

• BS in computer science with good knowledge of English
• Student of MS degree with interest in big data analysis and biology
• Previous experience with BASH, python or R would be desirable but not mandatory

 Projects will include the following approaches:

• Next generation sequencing data analysis
• Access to the DRACO / COBRA computational clusters of the Max Planck Society
• ata mining of large-scale genomic sequencing projects (The Cancer Genome Atlas)

 Master thesis will be based on one of the following subjects:

• Analysis of patient derived metastatic melanoma samples for identification of novel suppressors of metastasis
• Data mining of public cancer data repositories for target discovery