Postdoctoral Fellow

Role Summary

The Postdoctoral Fellow will join the Cytokinetics research team in South San Francisco to explore new areas of muscle biology and contribute to drug discovery. The position offers an opportunity to develop an independent research project under mentorship while gaining foundational knowledge in target discovery, technology or model development, and mechanism of action of therapeutics. The goal is to train the next generation of scientists for biotech or academic research focused on muscle-related diseases.

Responsibilities

• The fellow will spearhead a computational biology project to harmonize multi-modal clinical and imaging data across population biobanks related to human skeletal muscle function, using machine learning and deep learning to categorize phenotypes and correlate them with genetic variation and clinical diagnoses; aim to publish high-impact work.
• Champion new bioinformatic tools and workflows to enable discovery of novel therapeutic targets, conducting research independently and in a collaborative team-based setting.
• Provide regular project updates and progress in small and large group settings, and contribute scientific and technical expertise to advance discovery programs.

Qualifications

• Required: PhD in computational biology, computer science, bioinformatics, human genetics, or related field
• Required: Demonstrated expertise in multidimensional data analysis
• Required: Proven experience applying AI/ML techniques to biological problems (academic research or personal projects)
• Required: Track record for research excellence, independent critical thinking, and ability to design, execute, and interpret experiments as demonstrated by publications, presentations, fellowships, or grants
• Required: Enthusiasm for working in a team-based, multi-disciplinary environment and excellent verbal and written communication skills

• Preferred: Experience analyzing multimodal data from population biobanks such as UK Biobank, All of Us, FinnGen, or Genomics England
• Preferred: Clear career goals in biotech or academia
• Preferred: Commitment to a rigorous 1-2 year program including travel stipends and external training beyond mentors' coursework

Education

• PhD in computational biology, computer science, bioinformatics, human genetics, or related field