Biostatistician

Kids Cancer Alliance (KCA)

Access to state of the art facilities

Collaborative environment

Opportunity for team leader role

In July 2011, the Cancer Institute NSW awarded a $6.5m grant over 5 years to 6 partner institutions in NSW working on the clinical and laboratory research of child cancer to: (i) improve translation of laboratory discoveries from bench to bedside, and, (2) better apply evidence in the clinical care of child cancer patients and their families. This funding now links the three clinical centres treating, and conducting clinical research for, children with cancer in NSW at Randwick (Sydney Children's Hospital), Westmead (Children's Hospital Westmead) and Newcastle (John Hunter Children's Hospital), with the three Medical Research Institutes in NSW performing laboratory research in child cancer at Randwick (Children's Cancer Institute Australia) and Westmead (Children's Medical Research Institute and Kids Research Institute), forming the Kids Cancer Alliance (KCA).

The KCA is seeking to build a vibrant biostatistics and bioinformatics team team to underpin the core research activities of our consortium, comprising one biostatistician and two bioinformaticians. The team will enable and develop biostatistics/bioinformatics capability across the Randwick and Westmead campuses of the KCA. One appointee, based on qualifications and experience, will lead and coordinate the activities of this new team, and will report to the Director of the KCA. The team will be required to underpin the translational aims of the KCA and to maximise the knowledge gained from basic, preclinical and clinical research studies focused on improved childhood cancer outcomes. For biostatisticians, this will involve advancing the quality of statistical analyses of research datasets from a range of sources (eg clinical trials, animal studies, whole-genome array technologies), increasing the number of publications submitted to high impact peer reviewed journals and raising KCA's national and international childhood cancer research profile. In addition, expertise is required to develop novel statistical methods to mine, analyse and interpret data, in collaboration with the bioinformaticians.

Applicants will have a postgraduate qualification in a relevant area. Applicants for the Senior Biostatistician position will have a PhD in computational biology, or statistics, or equivalent working experience in related areas.

Full Position Description:

Position Description: Biostatistician / Senior Biostatistician
An experienced research Biostatistician is required to underpin the translational aims of the Kids Cancer Alliance (KCA) and to maximise the knowledge gained from basic, preclinical and clinical research studies focused on improved childhood cancer outcomes. Expertise is required to advance the quality of statistical analyses of research datasets from a range of sources (e.g. clinical trials, animal studies, whole-genome array technologies), increase the number publications submitted to high impact peer reviewed journals and raise KCA's national and international childhood cancer research profile. In addition, expertise is required to develop novel statistical methods to mine, analyse and interpret data, in particular for the childhood cancer personalised medicine centre, as part of an integrated bioinformatics and biostatistics team.

The position will develop and enable biostatistics across the Westmead and Randwick campuses within the KCA. A local collaborative biostatistics network, including the UNSW School of Mathematics and the Faculty of Medicine; will provide the nucleus of mentoring and strategic advice to help further develop this position.

Key responsibilities of the Biostatistician will be to:

Collaborate closely with KCA researchers, allied healthcare staff and data managers to support the analyses of large complex datasets, including clinical, epidemiological, and biological data.

Assist KCA researchers to design robust study designs to confidently test research hypotheses e.g. power calculations, and methodological guidance.

Assist with training and guiding research staff and students within each of the KCA research centres to enable researchers to conduct their own biostatistical analyses.

Collaborate as appropriate to develop the biostatistical capacity of KCA.

Actively collaborate with other bioinformaticians and biostatisticians within the team to drive research progress.

Prepare and present research data for group meetings, seminars and conferences.

Prepare manuscripts based on research data for publication in refereed journals.

Assist senior researchers with the preparation of grant applications and progress reports as required.

Continuously update knowledge of scientific developments in relevant areas.

Additional responsibilities for appointment as Senior Biostatistician:

Manage and mentor the bioinformatics and biostatistics team (team of 2 or 3 staff) that underpins KCA activities.

Supervise research students as required.

Take a leading role in the preparation of manuscripts for publication in refereed journals.

Take a leading role in the preparation of grant applications and in activities to secure additional funding for expansion of bioinformatics and biostatistics activities.

Establish and nurture collaborations with international biostatistics groups with the aim to develop an internationally respected biostatistics team specialising in the area of paediatric cancer research.

Essential selection criteria for Biostatistician:

A postgraduate qualification in an appropriate area (e.g. statistics or mathematics) and proven experience in biostatistical development and support.

Experience with one or more statistical software packages (e.g. R, STATA, SAS, S-Plus, SPSS) for manipulation and analysis of data.

Experience with a range of biostatistical analyses (e.g. regression, survival analysis etc) on a range of different research data (e.g. clinical, health, biological).

High level interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills enabling effective communication with both laboratory, clinical and other research staff.

Ability and enthusiasm to develop (or learn and implement) new biostatistical methods

Demonstrated problem-solving skills and independent thinking

Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with other researchers, service providers, professional groups etc.

Additional essential selection criteria for appointment as Senior Biostatistician:

PhD in Statistics, or equivalent working experience in related areas.

Desirable selection criteria:

Experience working with whole genome technologies, such as gene expression/miRNA microarrays, SNP chips for GWAS and Next-Gen sequencing.

Please attach the following documents in your application email:

Covering letter (not longer than 1 page preferred).

Responses to essential selection criteria (including senior and desirable selection criteria if this applies to you).

Your CV.

Please state the following in the subject box of your email "Biostatistician application from: Your Name".

Appointment and salary:
Appointments will be based on 12 month periods, ongoing based on performance. An attractive salary package will be negotiated for the right applicants. Please send applications to Dr Michael Evtushenko (mevtushenko@ccia.unsw.edu.au).

Applications close Monday 23rd January, 2012.

Michael Evtushenko
Research Program Manager
Kids Cancer Alliance (KCA)
KCA is a Translational Cancer Research Centre (TCRC) program.
Children's Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research
Lowy Cancer Research Centre, UNSW
PO Box 81 Randwick NSW 2031 Australia
Direct 02 9385 9429
Email MEvtushenko@ccia.unsw.edu.au.
Web http://www.ccia.org.au.

Children's Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research is the only independent medical research institute in Australia devoted to research into the causes, prevention, better treatment and ultimately a cure of childhood cancer. Our vision is to save the lives of all children with cancer and to eliminate their suffering.