Bioinformatician – Single-Cell Omics in Vascular & Skeletal Muscle Biology ETH Zürich in Switzerland

ETH Zurich is offering a fixed-term postdoctoral-level bioinformatician position in the Laboratory of Exercise and Health, led by Prof. Dr. Katrien De Bock at the Department of Health Sciences and Technology (D-HEST). The role focuses on single-cell and spatial omics in the context of vascular biology, skeletal muscle physiology, and metabolism.

The lab investigates how the muscle microvascular niche and specialized endothelial cell subpopulations interact with macrophages, pericytes, fibro-adipogenic progenitors, and other niche cells to maintain muscle homeostasis. The project combines human patient samples, mouse genetic models, single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, and CRISPR-based perturbation and cell-cell interaction tracing to understand how disrupted niche communication contributes to muscle dysfunction.

The successful candidate will lead the full single-cell and spatial transcriptomics workflow and work closely with PhD students, postdocs, and Prof. De Bock. Responsibilities include scRNA-seq analysis of human and mouse skeletal muscle samples, cell-state annotation, cross-species integration, multi-omics integration with spatial transcriptomics, ATAC-seq, metabolomics and multiplex imaging, cell-cell communication analysis, metabolic modeling, pseudobulk and differential expression analysis, in silico perturbation, and the development of reproducible bioinformatics pipelines and Shiny apps.

Applicants should hold a PhD in bioinformatics, computational biology, computational genomics, or a related quantitative field. Strong hands-on experience with single-cell RNA-seq analysis is essential, and experience with spatial transcriptomics is highly desirable. The role also requires strong programming skills in R and/or Python, familiarity with Bioconductor/scverse tools, version control and collaborative development platforms such as GitHub/GitLab, and experience with high-performance computing. A genuine interest in skeletal muscle physiology and/or vascular biology, strong communication skills, team spirit, and advanced English proficiency are expected.

The position offers access to state-of-the-art infrastructure at ETH Zurich, dedicated computational resources, and a highly collaborative, internationally oriented research environment. The salary is competitive and aligned with ETH Zurich regulations. ETH Zurich emphasizes equality, diversity, and an inclusive working culture.

Application: Submit your application online via the ETH Zurich portal with a CV, a one-page motivation/research statement, and contact details of two references. Questions about the role may be directed to Prof. Dr. Katrien De Bock at [email protected]. Applications by email or post are not accepted.

Institution: ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Deadline: not specified in the posting.