Yau Group develops statistical and computational methods for the analysis of genomic datasets with a particular interest in cancer sequencing applications and the use of Bayesian Statistics.

Yau Group are currently have projects in somatic mutation analysis of heterogeneous cancers, data fusion or integration techniques and single cell genomics.

More @ http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/~cyau/index.html

Lab page @ http://www.mathomics.cl/

More at https://leidosbiomed.csod.com/ats/careersite/jobdetails.aspx?site=4&c=leidosbiomed&id=2040

More at http://ncb.qau.edu.pk/

awk '/pattern1/ {Actions}
/pattern2/ {Actions}' file

The working of Awk is as follows
Awk reads the input files one line at a time.
For each line, it matches with given pattern in the given order, if matches performs the corresponding action.
If no pattern matches, no action will be performed.
In the above syntax, either search pattern or action are optional, But not both.
If the search pattern is not given, then Awk performs the given actions for each line of the input.
If the action is not given, print all that lines that matches with the given patterns which is the default action.
Empty braces with out any action does nothing. It wont perform default printing operation.
Each statement in Actions should be delimited by semicolon.
Say you have data.tsv with the following contents:

$ cat data/test.tsv
contig1 ACTGTCTGTCACTGTGTTGTGATGTTGTGTGTG
contig2 ACTTTATATATT
contig3 ACTTATATATATATA
contig4 ACTTATATATATATA
contig5 ACTTTATATATT
By default Awk prints every line from the file.

$ awk '{print;}' data/test.tsv
contig1 ACTGTCTGTCACTGTGTTGTGATGTTGTGTGTG
contig2 ACTTTATATATT
contig3 ACTTATATATATATA
contig4 ACTTATATATATATA
contig5 ACTTTATATATT
We print the line which matches the pattern contig3

$ awk '/contig3/' data/test.tsv
contig3 ACTTATATATATATA
Awk has number of builtin variables. For each record i.e line, it splits the record delimited by whitespace character by default and stores it in the $n variables. If the line has 5 words, it will be stored in $1, $2, $3, $4 and $5. $0 represents the whole line. NF is a builtin variable which represents the total number of fields in a record.

$ awk '{print $1","$2;}' data/test.tsv
contig1,ACTGTCTGTCACTGTGTTGTGATGTTGTGTGTG
contig2,ACTTTATATATT
contig3,ACTTATATATATATA
contig4,ACTTATATATATATA
contig5,ACTTTATATATT

$ awk '{print $1","$NF;}' data/test.tsv
contig1,ACTGTCTGTCACTGTGTTGTGATGTTGTGTGTG
contig2,ACTTTATATATT
contig3,ACTTATATATATATA
contig4,ACTTATATATATATA
contig5,ACTTTATATATT

Awk has two important patterns which are specified by the keyword called BEGIN and END. The syntax is as follows:

BEGIN { Actions before reading the file}
{Actions for everyline in the file}
END { Actions after reading the file }

For example,
$ awk 'BEGIN{print "Header,Sequence"}{print $1","$2;}END{print "-------"}' data/test.tsv
Header,Sequence
contig1,ACTGTCTGTCACTGTGTTGTGATGTTGTGTGTG
contig2,ACTTTATATATT
contig3,ACTTATATATATATA
contig4,ACTTATATATATATA
contig5,ACTTTATATATT
-------
We can also use the concept of a conditional operator in print statement of the form print CONDITION ? PRINT_IF_TRUE_TEXT : PRINT_IF_FALSE_TEXT. For example, in the code below, we identify sequences with lengths > 14:

$ awk '{print (length($2)>14) ? $0">14" : $0"<=14";}' data/test.tsv
contig1 ACTGTCTGTCACTGTGTTGTGATGTTGTGTGTG>14
contig2 ACTTTATATATT<=14
contig3 ACTTATATATATATA>14
contig4 ACTTATATATATATA>14
contig5 ACTTTATATATT<=14
We can also use 1 after the last block {} to print everything (1 is a shorthand notation for {print $0} which becomes {print} as without any argument print will print $0 by default), and within this block, we can change $0, for example to assign the first field to $0 for third line (NR==3), we can use:

$ awk 'NR==3{$0=$1}1' data/test.tsv
contig1 ACTGTCTGTCACTGTGTTGTGATGTTGTGTGTG
contig2 ACTTTATATATT
contig3
contig4 ACTTATATATATATA
contig5 ACTTTATATATT
You can have as many blocks as you want and they will be executed on each line in the order they appear, for example, if we want to print $1 three times (here we are using printf instead of print as the former doesn't put end-of-line character),

$ awk '{printf $1"\t"}{printf $1"\t"}{print $1}' data/test.tsv
contig1 contig1 contig1
contig2 contig2 contig2
contig3 contig3 contig3
contig4 contig4 contig4
contig5 contig5 contig5
Although, we can also skip executing later blocks for a given line by using next keyword:

$ awk '{printf $1"\t"}NR==3{print "";next}{print $1}' data/test.tsv
contig1 contig1
contig2 contig2
contig3
contig4 contig4
contig5 contig5

$ awk 'NR==3{print "";next}{printf $1"\t"}{print $1}' data/test.tsv
contig1 contig1
contig2 contig2

contig4 contig4
contig5 contig5
You can also use getline to load the contents of another file in addition to the one you are reading, for example, in the statement given below, the while loop will load each line from test.tsv into k until no more lines are to be read:

$ awk 'BEGIN{while((getline k <"data/test.tsv")>0) print "BEGIN:"k}{print}' data/test.tsv
BEGIN:contig1 ACTGTCTGTCACTGTGTTGTGATGTTGTGTGTG
BEGIN:contig2 ACTTTATATATT
BEGIN:contig3 ACTTATATATATATA
BEGIN:contig4 ACTTATATATATATA
BEGIN:contig5 ACTTTATATATT
contig1 ACTGTCTGTCACTGTGTTGTGATGTTGTGTGTG
contig2 ACTTTATATATT
contig3 ACTTATATATATATA
contig4 ACTTATATATATATA
contig5 ACTTTATATATT
You can also store data in the memory with the syntax VARIABLE_NAME[KEY]=VALUE which you can later use through for (INDEX in VARIABLE_NAME) command:

$ awk '{i[$1]=1}END{for (j in i) print j"<="i[j]}' data/test.tsv
contig1<=1
contig2<=1
contig3<=1
contig4<=1
contig5<=1

My client provide innovative biomarker discovery and development services to the pharmaceutical industry. They partner with the pharmaceutical industry to develop and implement biomarker strategies, providing a full range of biomarker services from pre-clinical biomarker discovery, assay development, right through to the delivery of clinical tests in their CLIA lab.

As a Senior Statistician you would support this effort and be responsible for the management of technical experimental study design and data handling processes required for the discovery, development and commercial delivery of multiplex clinical diagnostic assays; You will:

Develop analytical experimental designs for multiplex clinical diagnostic assays in accordance with regulatory requirements (e.g. CLIA, FDA)
Lead and coordinate the evaluation of analytical studies including characterization, verification, and validation studies
Lead specification setting and specification alterations
Ensure DOE methodology is routinely used in analytical studies.
Work with the Operations Department to ensure robust, reproducible and precise assay development
Provide expertise of general aspects for Statistical Process Control
Provide statistical expertise for R&D, Quality, and Manufacturing
You will work in a fast-paced, project orientated environment and the ability to plan and execute objectives under tight timelines is a must. This is a unique opportunity suited for a qualified statistician with an interest in working to deliver first class data analysis support and solutions in a clinical setting.

Requirements

MSc or PhD in statistics or a related discipline
In depth knowledge of DOE methods to analytically validate, monitor and trouble shoot multiplex clinical diagnostic assays, ideally in a commercial/industrial setting
Experienced in the analysis of statistical technology evaluation, independent data and dependent data analysis, medical diagnostic accuracy, statistical graphics and reproducible reporting.
Excellent interpersonal, communication (including written and spoken English)
Ability to independently manage multiple projects and to deliver results on time per project deadlines
Proficient programming and analysis skills in one or more statistical package (e.g. R, Stata, SAS)
The following skills, while not mandatory, are highly desirable:

Development and validation of predictive models
Experience of clinical epidemiology, survival analysis, biomarker research, Bayesian methods, quantifying predictive accuracy.
Knowledge of regulatory standards for CLIA and/or FDA IVD tests
Reward

An attractive remuneration package will reflect the importance of this role and will include 6.8 weeks annual leave (pro rata, including fixed closure days), company pension scheme, enhanced sick pay and maternity entitlements, healthcare plan and opportunities for learning and development, as well as access to a company restaurant and parking facilities

Bioinformatician replied:

if ($date == "Valentine's Day" && $me =! Bioinformatician) {

rose_day(); promise_day(); kiss_day();

}

else {

hack_genome(); ko-fi(); youtube(); do_scripting(); sleep();

)

RNAs, especially non-coding RNAs (such as microRNA, long ncRNAs) are recently identified to be very abundant in mammalian organisms and play some key roles in gene expression regulation, gene silencing, and also implicated in disease progression, stem cell pluripotency etc. Current research activities of our lab include analysis of expression pattern of ncRNAs by microarray and next-gen sequencing data and understanding the role of miRNAs or other regulatory RNAs in various diseases, especially cancer and validation by reporter assays (renilla/luciferase) and other experimental tools.

More @ http://vvekslab.in/index.html

The blind mole rat (Spalax) is an intriguing creature worthy of study. This was animal research examining the resistance subterranean blind mole rats (Spalax) have to cancers. Blind mole rats are one of a unique group of animals that spend their lives underground, are tolerant of very low oxygen levels (down to only 3% concentration – levels that would kill a human), have a long lifespan of more than 20 years, which is exceptional for a small rodent, and show no clear signs of ageing or age-related diseases.

This research has demonstrated the unique abilities of the blind mole rat to resist cancer, even when directly given potent cancer-causing chemicals. In this study researchers gave blind mole rats potent cancer-causing chemicals either through injections or applied directly to the skin, but the animals didn't develop cancer.

Remarkably, connective tissue cells (fibroblasts) taken from the blind mole rat even prevented the growth of human cancer cells when they were grown together in the laboratory.

In the laboratory, the researchers also demonstrated how connective tissue cells called fibroblasts taken from the animal seem to play an important role in this cancer resistance. These cells prevented the growth of human cancer cells when the two types of cells were grown together in the laboratory.

The researchers concluded that, "This report provides pioneering evidence that Spalax [the blind mole rat] is not only resistant to spontaneous cancer, but also to experimentally induced cancer, and shows the unique ability of Spalax fibroblasts to inhibit growth and kill cancer cells, but not normal cells, either through direct fibroblast-cancer cell interaction or via soluble factors."

Nonetheless, there remains optimism that understanding the anti-cancer mechanisms of mole rats may one day help inform further cancer treatments for humans, but a lot more research – and probably a significant amount of time – is needed before this can be considered.

Reference:

Image: telegraph.co.uk

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/11/91

Manov, Irena, et al. "Pronounced cancer resistance in a subterranean rodent, the blind mole-rat, Spalax: in vivo and in vitro evidence." BMC biology 11.1 (2013): 91.

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/01January/Pages/Claims-of-a-universal-cure-for-cancer-misleading.aspx

http://www.express.co.uk/news/health/454188/EXCLUSIVE-Cure-for-ALL-cancers-is-on-the-way-as-scientists-discover-major-breakthrough

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2540321/Could-mole-rats-hold-key-cure-cancer-Scientists-hail-potentially-life-changing-breakthrough.html