We are seeking a Research Fellow to carry out independent research on a Wellcome Trust study of transmission fitness in viruses. This study concerns epidemiological modelling of genetic variation that influences transmissibility of viruses such as HIV and SARS-CoV-2. A particular focus of this research will be investigation of fitness trade-offs between within-host replication and between-host transmission. We will study how beneficial mutations arise within hosts and spread at the epidemic level. An outcome of this research will be a new set of bioinformatic methods that can be used to enhance epidemiological surveillance and therapeutic strategies and a public database of genetic variants that influence transmission fitness.

Duties and Responsibilities:
You will work within the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Epidemiology, directed by Professor Neil Ferguson, at Imperial College London which has been at the forefront of infectious disease analytics in the UK since 2007. Its mission is to be an international resource and centre of excellence for research on the epidemiological analysis and modelling of novel infectious disease outbreaks.

You will have a range of responsibilities underpinned by the following areas – teaching, management, research and education. You will develop statistical models for the study of genetic variants which influence transmission fitness and carry out phylogenetic and statistical analysis of virus genomic data including SARS-CoV-2 and HIV. You will be responsible for teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses within the regulation of the awarding body of the funder and be required to appropriately manage the resources allocated to their funding.

This role offers the opportunity to expand skills in genomic epidemiology, bioinformatics, and infectious disease modelling.

Essential Requirements:
You should have a PhD in Epidemiology, evolutionary biology, applied mathematics, statistics or a similarly quantitative discipline, or equivalent research, industrial or commercial experience. You should have experience with modelling dynamic systems in infectious diseases and/or other biological systems. Experience analysing pathogen genetic sequence data and previous experience conducting molecular epidemiological or population genetic analyses is essential.

Further Information:
The post is full time and fixed term until 31 August 2024 and will be based at the St Mary’s Campus, Paddington. Imperial College is supportive of flexible working. The College is happy to discuss the possibility of implementing such arrangements for this post, with suitably qualified people, subject to operational requirements.

Should you have any queries please contact Dr Erik Volz ( e.volz@imperial.ac.uk)

We are committed to equality of opportunity, to eliminating discrimination and to creating an inclusive working environment for all. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, gender identity, sex, or sexual orientation. We are an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Disability Confident Leader and a Stonewall Diversity Champion.