Predoctoral Research Assistant for the Digital Genomics Group

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

We are seeking a highly motivated graduate researcher to join the EXPOGEN-AI project within the Digital Genomics Group, Cancer Genomics Program at CNIO. This is a unique opportunity to investigate how environmental exposures shape the genomic architecture of lung cancer by integrating exposome data, cancer genomics, and advanced artificial intelligence methods.

EXPOGEN-AI is supported by the Community of Madrid (César Nombela grant) and involves national and international collaborations. The project aims to identify mutational signatures, model exposure-driven cancer risk, and develop digital twin strategies to better understand disease mechanisms and support prevention and precision oncology. The project is led by Dr. Karen Gonçalves and will be developed within the Digital Genomics Group, led by Dr. Marcos Díaz-Gay. The group has recently demonstrated significant impact in applying these methodologies across different cancer types, including lung cancer (Díaz-Gay, Zhang, et al. 2025, Nature) and colorectal cancer (Díaz-Gay, dos Santos, et al. 2025, Nature).

Key responsibilities of the position:

• Integrate and analyze environmental, epidemiological, clinical, and genomic data from cancer cohorts.
• Develop and apply computational and advanced statistical approaches for exposome-informed cancer research.
• Analyze somatic alterations and mutational signatures in relation to environmental and lifestyle exposures.
• Apply machine learning and AI approaches to multimodal data integration.
• Collaborate with national and international research partners.
• Disseminate research through lab meetings, conferences, and peer-reviewed publications.
• Contribute to a collaborative, supportive, and inclusive work environment.

The application should include:

• C.V.
• Motivation letter.
• 2–3 reference contacts.

Where to apply

E-mail: empleo@cnio.es

Requirements

Research Field: Biological sciences » Biology

Education Level: Master Degree or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

Essential experience and skills:

• M.S. in epidemiology, data science, bioinformatics, computational biology, biomedicine, computer science, or related disciplines.
• Experience working with epidemiological, clinical, genomic, or other complex biomedical datasets.
• Knowledge of statistical analysis and data visualization.
• Proficiency in at least one programming language (preferably R and/or Python) and bash scripting.
• Solid level of spoken and written English (weekly meetings with English-speaking collaborators are expected).

Desirable experience and skills:

• Experience in cancer genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, or other omics data.
• Knowledge of environmental or molecular epidemiology.
• Experience with machine learning or multimodal data integration.
• Experience with high-performance computing (HPC) cluster systems or cloud computing.
• Background or strong interest in lung cancer, exposome research, and somatic mutagenesis.
• Experience with molecular biology techniques (wet lab).

Level: Good

Additional Information

Benefits

• Incorporation into a Cancer Research Centre of excellence of international relevance.
• Gross annual salary between €19,475 and €25,615.
• Social benefits. Flexible compensation (Health insurance, meals, transportation, childcare).
• Contract linked to a project.

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available: 1

Company/Institute: LA FUNDACIÓN DEL SECTOR PÚBLICO ESTATAL CENTRO NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACIONES ONCOLÓGICAS CARLOS III F.S.P. CNIO

Country: Spain

State/Province: Madrid

City: Madrid

Postal Code: 28029

Street: C/Melchor Fernández Almagro 3

Contact

State/Province: Madrid

City: Madrid

Website: https://www.cnio.es/

Street: C/ Melchor Fernandez Almagro

Postal Code: 28029

E-Mail: empleo@cnio.es

Phone: 917328000