Job Title
Associate Research Scientist: One Health Bioinformatics and Molecular Diagnostics
Agency
Texas A&M Agrilife Research
Department
Animal Science
Proposed Minimum Salary
Commensurate
Job Location
College Station, Texas
Job Type
Staff
Job Description
About Texas A&M AgriLife
Texas A&M AgriLife is comprised of the following Texas A&M University System members:
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
Texas A&M AgriLife Research
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University
Texas A&M Forest Service
Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory
As the nation’s largest most comprehensive agriculture program, Texas A&M AgriLife brings together a college and four state agencies focused on agriculture and life sciences within The Texas A&M University System. With over 5,000 employees and a presence in every county across the state, Texas A&M AgriLife is uniquely positioned to improve lives, environments and the Texas economy through education, research, extension and service.
Click here to learn more about joining AgriLife!
Position Information
Job Summary:
The Associate Research Scientist will lead the laboratory's bioinformatics and molecular diagnostics program. The incumbent will develop and validate sequencing and PCR based detection methods for pathogens, parasites, vectors, and antimicrobial resistance determinants; build reproducible pipelines for amplicon, metagenomic, and whole genome data from short read and long read platforms; and translate results into surveillance outputs for research sponsors and agency partners. This is a staff scientist position with defined ownership of the laboratory's diagnostic and computational workflows. The incumbent is expected to lead publications, contribute to grant proposals, and provide technical guidance to students and staff.
Responsibilities:
Research
Leads the development and validation of molecular detection assays (qPCR, digital PCR, and targeted sequencing) for One Health surveillance, including primer and probe design, in silico specificity screening, and determination of limit of detection, analytical sensitivity and specificity, and repeatability.
Designs and conducts amplicon, metabarcoding, and shotgun metagenomic sequencing studies on Illumina and Oxford Nanopore platforms across animal, food, and environmental sample types.
Builds, documents, and maintains reproducible bioinformatics pipelines for read processing, taxonomic classification, genome assembly and annotation, antimicrobial resistance gene detection, and phylogenetic analysis on Linux high performance computing systems.
Curates reference sequence databases and benchmarks pipeline performance using mock communities, reference materials, and cross platform comparisons.
Manages sequencing data, metadata, and analysis code under the laboratory data management policy and FAIR principles, including version control and deposition in public repositories.
Integrates molecular results with spatial, temporal, and epidemiological surveillance data to provide decision support for research sponsors and agency partners.
Prepares manuscripts as lead or contributing author and drafts methods, preliminary data, and figures for federal, state, and industry proposals.
Coordinates sample logistics, data sharing, and joint analyses with federal, national laboratory, and university collaborators.
Maintains biosafety, contamination control, and sample tracking standards; assists with the preparation, organization, and cleaning of the laboratory worksite.
Mentoring
Trains graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, undergraduate researchers, and laboratory staff in sequence analysis, assay design and validation, and sequencing library preparation.
Reviews student analyses and drafts and helps troubleshoot computational and wet laboratory workflows.
Presentations and Reporting
Presents research at laboratory meetings, stakeholder and agency briefings, and scientific conferences.
Prepares technical progress…