Sanger Institute
ComputationalBiologist–CellOntology&AgenticAIWorkflows
Neural analysis suggests this role is
optimal for Mid+ candidates.
“Computational Biologist – Cell Ontology & Agentic AI Workflows at Sanger Institute. Skills: Cell Ontology, Agentic AI, Knowledge graphs. Extend the Cell Ontology. Integrate evidence from literature, transcriptomics, and expert knowledge”
What They're Looking For.
Must Have
PhD or equivalent experience, Biological sciences, bioinformatics, or computational discipline, Programming experience in Python, Critically read and synthesise scientific literature, Knowledge of cell biology, Experience with single-cell transcriptomics or related bioinformatics, Familiarity with ontologies, controlled vocabularies or knowledge representation
Nice to Have
Computational scientists with grounding in biology, Experience with data pipelines, NLP, or knowledge engineering, Cloud platform certifications
What You'll Do.
Extend the Cell Ontology
Integrate evidence from literature
Build and run agentic AI workflows
Develop Python-based workflows
Draft ontology entries for expert review
Collaborate internationally with scientists
Annotate reference taxonomies
Improve cell type standards
Contribute to open-source tools
Develop and maintain Python packages
Develop Agentic AI workflows
How You'll Work.
Team & Collaboration
Collaborative working relationships; External partners and consortia
Full Job Description
Do you want to help us improve human health and understand life on Earth? Make your mark by shaping the future to enable or deliver life-changing science to solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges. We are recruiting a Computational Biologist role for a fixed term until 30th June 2027. Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics atlases combined with machine learning, are revolutionising our understanding of cell types and their function in health and disease than traditional methods can keep up. The Cell Ontology (CL) is the community standard that makes this knowledge computable, used by the Human Cell Atlas, the BRAIN Initiative, CellxGene, and thousands of researchers worldwide. We are looking for someone to help us extend it to cover the whole human brain and incorporate Human cell Atlas Organ atlases. This is not a conventional curation role. You will be pioneering agentic AI workflows that combine large language models, automated literature deep search, bioinformatic analysis, and knowledge graphs to curate cell type knowledge at a scale and speed that was not possible even a year ago. You will be working at the frontier of how AI transforms scientific knowledge engineering. **You will be responsible for:** * **Extending the Cell Ontology** : add new cell types from Human Cell Atlas and BRAIN Initiative reference atlases, integrating evidence from literature, transcriptomics, and expert knowledge. * **Collaboratively building and running agentic AI workflows:** develop Python-based workflows where AI agents search literature, extract evidence, run bioinformatic tests, and draft ontology entries for expert review. * **Collaborate internationally** : work directly with scientists at the Allen Institute, CZI, and HCA partner institutions to annotate reference taxonomies and improve cell type standards. * **Contribute to open-source tools** : help develop and maintain the team's growing suite of Python packages and Agentic Ai workflows for ontology curation, cell
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