Computational Scientist (Beijing, China)
Computational Scientist (Beijing, China)
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About Syngenta
Syngenta is a leading agriculture company helping to improve global food security by enabling millions of farmers to make better use of available resources. Through world class science and innovative solutions, our 28,000 people in over 90 countries are working to transform how crops are grown. We are committed to rescuing land from degradation, enhancing biodiversity and revitalizing rural communities.
Syngenta Beijing Innovation Centre is one of Syngenta’s seven key research and technology centres, incubating the first fully foreign funded agricultural biotech research institution in China. Located in Zhongguancun Life Science Park in Beijing, it officially started operations in October 2008. Beijing Innovation Centre is now the home base for more than 100 highly qualified employees, covering areas of scientific research, quality and product safety management and regulatory affairs, etc. As a major Syngenta site for biotechnology research in China, it offers state-of-the-art modern research facilities and capabilities.
1. A Leading Global Innovation Centre
As a leading global innovation centre, Beijing Innovation Center is committed to developing and bringing the innovative traits and products into the hands of growers for yield and quality improvement, agricultural resources optimization, and pests and weeds resistance through industry-leading biotech research such as GM technology, genome editing, biological information, high-throughput screening, delivered by a strong
R&D team with world-class research capabilities.
Beijing Innovation Center integrates global advanced agricultural technologies of molecular biology, plant pathology, cell biology and bioassay to support seeds and crop protection product development and pesticide resistance management.
Beijing Innovation Center is commissioned as a knowledge centre with deep scientific expertise, broad spectrum tools and robust capabilities for research and development. Partnering with Syngenta global business, it establishes an innovative and differentiating biotech pipeline to deliver market-driven products.
2. The Forefront of External Research Collaborations
As a scientific base for biotech innovation and collaborations, Syngenta has invested near 100 million and accessed early leads and capabilities from top Chinese institutions and universities, such as Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) in identification of gene function and its development and application since 2007, continuing cultivating and providing talents for Chinese biotech industry to accelerate its evolution.
Syngenta Mary-Dell Chilton Graduate Scholarship (former known as Syngenta Friendship Laboratory Scholarship Program) has supported 264 students in 150 labs across 49 institutions to encourage and support the participation of outstanding
Chinese students in plant science research, since its establishment in 2008, for contributing to the development of agricultural research in China.
3. Strict GM Safety Management
As an industry leader in the field, Syngenta follows the highest stewardship standards for establishing sound quality management and scientific risk assessment system, to enable the safety of GM materials in labs and field.
Syngenta is also committed to help third parties for implementation of the strict quality standards through establishing quality management system, providing trainings and conducting risk assessment for them to ensure the safety of GM materials.
About This Job:
Syngenta Beijing Innovation Centre is seeking a highly motivated and innovative computational scientist to help drive hypothesis-based trait lead discovery for important agronomic traits and breeding. In this role, you will help analyze and extract meaningful information from complex biological data to identify target genomic elements and help design a modification strategy for trait improvement. As a computational scientist, you will work independently to manage, analyze, integrate, mine complex biological data, and help interpret results for biological hypothesis generation. By partnering with crop experts, experimental and computational biologists in research teams, you will help deliver customized bioinformatics solutions and contribute to the development of innovative seeds products.
Accountabilities:
- Analyze large scale omics datasets, interpret and communicate analysis results to stakeholders
- Integrate diverse types of biological data to identify leads for trait improvement
- Work closely with other computational scientists and trait scientists to help interpret data and generate hypotheses on how candidate gene function impacts traits of interest
- Contribute to the design of strategies on validating the function of candidate genes
- Provide consultations on experimental design, analytical methods, computational tools, and data interpretation
- Reaching beyond standard functional genomics approaches, explore new machine learning based approaches for lead identification
Critical knowledge:
- Master’s degree with at least two years’ experience or Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Statistics, Computer Science or a related field with experience on biological problems; or Biology related fields with computational experience, Familiarity with Genome Editing
- Expertise in omics data analysis, data integration, and data mining
- Experience mining large scale omics and genetic data for trait lead discovery is highly desired
- Experience analyzing omics data (such as genome sequencing, transcript profiling, proteomics, or metabolomics data)
- Understanding of molecular biology and genetics, preferably with plant experience and knowledge of plant breeding
- Experience with machine learning, natural language processing is a plus
- Proficiency in applying statistical methods (such as differential expression analysis, gene network analysis, gene set enrichment analysis, integrated omics analyses, etc.) for analyzing high dimensional biological data sets, such as RNAseq or metabolomics data
- Proficiency in one or more statistical programming or scripting languages such as R, Python, or other relevant languages
- Demonstrated ability to prioritize multiple tasks
- Ability to learn and develop new technical skills, and expand knowledge
- Excellent communication skills, fluency in both verbal and written English communication
Important Additional Information:
- Role based in Changping district, Beijing