You want to become part of our team? We look forward to receiving your application!
We are always looking for ambitious students and postdocs to join our multidisciplinary and highly collaborative institute. In addition, we are able to support highly qualified group leader candidates who are considering an application for an ERC grant or one of the Austrian programs (FWF START, WWTF VRG). If you are interested, please send your application – with a detailed and specific cover letter, scientific CV, future research plan (postdoc and group leader candidates), university certificates / transcript, and three references – by email to the institute director or the group leader whom you would like to work with.
Specific open positions will be posted below and advertised via Twitter (https://twitter.com/BockLab), BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/bocklab.bsky.social), and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/christoph-bock/).
Senior Biomedical Data Scientist (academic position with tenure-track option)
We are recruiting a Senior Biomedical Data Scientist to join the research group led by Christoph Bock at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and at the Institute of Artificial Intelligence of the Medical University of Vienna. The successful candidate will broadly contribute to the group’s research, analyze large datasets, support and co-mentor students / postdocs, contribute to bioinformatic methods development, and work with Christoph Bock on the initiation and management of projects, grants, and courses/lectures in bioinformatics, machine learning, and biomedicine, with the perspective of developing of new therapies for cancer and immune diseases.
The Candidate
We are looking for candidates who want to contribute to cutting-edge research, with a strong commitment to scientific excellence and collaboration, and outside the constraints of a classical PhD -> Postdoc -> PI career. The successful candidate will become a key member of a large research group that combines computational methods with high-throughput biology/biomedicine. While the initial recruitment will be on a fixed-term contract, a tenure-track option with promotion to a senior scientist position within the research group is available. The ideal candidate would have a high level of bioinformatics expertise, research experience, scientific creativity, and leadership skills that would easily qualify them for an independent academic career – but may for various reasons prefer to work as part of an academic team rather than as an independent group leader. A typical background would be a PhD in bioinformatics, quantitative biology, machine learning / artificial intelligence, data science, or a related field, ideally with prior exposure to high-throughput biology, single-cell or spatial datasets, or biomedical research. We are open to early-stage candidates who have recently completed their PhD or will do so within the next year – but also to candidates who have already collected initial postdoctoral research experience and are ready for the next challenge. The position includes ample opportunities for advancing a research career, developing academic leadership skills, engaging in international collaborations, and contributing to the advancement of medicine through computational research. The university provides an excellent employee benefits package. The expected starting salary is EUR 60,000 to EUR 65,000 per year (gross), with a scheduled raise when fulfilling the institutional criteria for the tenure-track option.
The Research Group (https://bocklab.org)
We seek to advance biomedicine with technology-driven research, combining functional genomics, bioinformatics, and machine learning with a focus on understanding epigenetic cell states and contributing to cancer and immunity. We are internationally well-connected and strongly committed to the career development of all group members. PhD students and postdocs in our research group have won prestigious fellowships and prizes; three out of three PhD students and five out of six postdocs who graduated from our group have already obtained principal investigator positions and started their own research groups at universities / research institutes in Austria and abroad. Main areas of research include:
- Computational biology. Bioinformatic methods are essential for data-driven biomedical research. We develop algorithms and software for large-scale data analysis, and we pursue clinical collaborations to establish medical impact.
- Single-cell genomics. Many diseases involve deregulated epigenetic cell states. As members of the Human Cell Atlas, we use single-cell sequencing and organoids to dissect the gene-regulatory foundations of cancer and immunity.
- High-throughput biotechnology. Groundbreaking discoveries are often driven by technology. We develop and apply new technologies in areas such as single-cell sequencing, CRISPR screens, epigenome editing, and synthetic biology.
- Machine learning. Huge datasets pose new analytical challenges. As members of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems, we develop methods for interpretable deep learning and artificial intelligence in biology.
- Immune cell engineering. CAR T cells have shown dramatic efficacy for blood cancers and may spearhead a broader shift toward personalized, cell-based therapies. We use high-throughput technology to design synthetic immune cells.
The Principal Investigator (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9qSsTcIAAAAJ)
Christoph Bock is a Principal Investigator at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Professor of [Bio]Medical Informatics at the Medical University of Vienna. He is also the scientific coordinator of the Biomedical Sequencing Facility at CeMM, member of the Human Cell Atlas Organizing Committee, fellow of the European Lab for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), and co-founder of a Vienna-based start-up company (Myllia Biotechnology). He has received major research awards, including an ERC Starting Grant (2016-2021), an ERC Consolidator Grant (2021-2026), the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society (2009), the Overton Prize of the International Society for Computational Biology (2017), and the Erwin Schrödinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2022).
The Host Institutions (https://www.meduniwien.ac.at/web/en/ & https://www.cemm.at/research)
The Medical University of Vienna is Europe’s largest medical school and one of the oldest in the world. It was founded in 1365 as the medical faculty of the University of Vienna, and it has operated as an autonomous university since 2004. Within the university’s data science department, the Institute of Artificial Intelligence focuses on machine learning / artificial intelligence in for biomedical research and clinical applications. The CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences is one of Europe’s leading biomedical research institutes. Over the last years, CeMM researchers published >10 papers in Nature/Cell/Science/NEJM and >40 papers in Nature/Science/Cell sister journals, with a team of ~150 scientists. Research at CeMM is exceptionally collaborative and has strong focus on medical impact, based on a molecular understanding of cancer and immune diseases. A study by “The Scientist” put CeMM among the top-5 best places to work in academia worldwide. Vienna is frequently ranked the world’s best city to live. It is a United Nations city with a large English-speaking community.
Please send your application to sec-ai@meduniwien.ac.at. The application e-mail should include a cover letter, CV, and academic transcripts, ideally combined into a single PDF document. All applications received by 5 November 2023 will be considered. Start dates are very flexible.
Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Deep Learning Methods & Applications
We are recruiting a tenure-track assistant professor who will establish a cutting-edge research program in deep learning methods & applications. The successful candidate will join the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at the Medical University of Vienna, with ample opportunities to integrate into the European research landscape, including the European Lab for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) and European Health Data Space. This is a university-funded tenure-track position with startup package / core funding. The call is open to candidates seeking to establish their first independent group (~ERC Starting Grant) as well as to candidates who are already established group leaders (~ERC Consolidator Grant).
The Goal
Machine learning is transforming medicine, for example by enabling physicians to incorporate vast amounts of data and knowledge into each of their clinical decisions. Machine learning also advances our understanding of the biology that underlies human diseases, with future perspectives to identify molecular disease mechanisms in each individual patient and to devise personalized therapies. Researchers at the Medical University of Vienna, together with the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine and the Austrian Academy of Sciences, are working to establish an ambitious research program focusing on “Machine Learning in Biology and Medicine”, with three pillars: (i) methodological research in machine learning, focusing on interpretable deep learning, causal modeling, federated machine learning, and time series analysis; (ii) proof-of-concept applications in biology and medicine, including personalized medicine and systems biology; (iii) dissemination and impact through sustainable clinical applications, contribution to international consortia, creation of startup companies, and a commitment to research-centric teaching and public outreach. The successful candidate will contribute creatively and proactively to one or more of these directions.
The Candidate
We are looking for candidates with strong expertise in deep learning methodology & applications and the ambition to lead an academic research group that will pursue world-class research in this area. The ideal candidates will have a strong publication record in methodological research (e.g., papers at leading machine learning conferences, journals, widely cited preprints) and a current or future interest in applying their exper-tise in medicine or biology, in collaboration with biomedical and clinical researchers. A typical background would be a PhD and some postdoctoral research in machine learning, computer science, statistics, bioinformatics or another quantitative field, ideally combining methodologically and applied research. We are open to early-stage candidates who want to start their first independent research group, and to established group leaders who are looking for new challenges (e.g., moving closer to applications in medicine or biology). Responsibilities and support will be commensurate with experience and level of seniority. The position does not require any undergraduate teaching but does provide opportunities to contribute to graduate-level teaching and curriculum development. Prior experience in teaching machine learning is therefore a plus. German language skills are not required (graduate-level teaching is in English), and both the city and the university provide a highly international environment. Vienna as a city and the university as an employer provide a family-friendly environment with essentially free kindergarten and daycare for children aged 1 to 6, a high-quality public school system, and many international schools. The university provides a tenure-track position with a highly competitive personal salary, an excellent employee benefits package, and a startup package / core funding.
The Host Institution
The Medical University of Vienna is Europe’s largest medical school and one of the oldest in the world. It was founded in 1365 as the medical faculty of the University of Vienna, and it has operated as an autonomous university since 2004. Physicians at the Medical University treat ~95,000 patients per year as inpatients and ~500,000 as outpatients, creating major opportunities for data-driven research. The Medical University has a dedicated department for Medical Data Science, with research in statistics, medical informatics, complexity sciences, and other areas. In this department, the Institute of Artificial Intelligence (AI Institute) seeks to advance biomedical research and clinical practice through methods development, applications, and teaching in machine learning and artificial intelligence. The AI Institute is directed by Christoph Bock (https://tinyurl.com/chrbock), who is Professor of Medical Informatics at the Medical University of Vienna and Principal Investigator at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the Human Cell Atlas, Fellow of ELLIS, and recipient of important research awards (Otto Hahn Medal, ERC Starting Grant, ERC Consolidator Grant, Overton Prize, Erwin Schrödinger Prize). The AI Institute currently hosts two additional group leaders and their research groups: Georg Dorffner (https://tinyurl.com/gdorffner), who is the vice president of the Austrian Society for Artificial Intelligence, and Matthias Samwald (https://tinyurl.com/samwald), who coordinates a major EU project that implements computational methods in clinical practice. The Medical University of Vienna hosts a rapidly growing cluster of machine learning researchers in areas spanning radiology, dermatology, bioinformatics, and synthetic biology. Many researchers at the Medical University of Vienna have successfully applied for European Research Council (ERC) and other high-profile grants (e.g., the Austrian Excellence Initiative), and extensive training and support is available in Vienna for researchers preparing such grant proposals.
Please send your application by e-mail to faculty-recruiting5@meduniwien.ac.at. The application should include: cover letter, curriculum vitae, list of publication, five key publications with download links and a brief statement about their relevance, summary of research and teaching activities (~3–5 pages), concept of future research plans (~1–3 pages), and contact details of at least three references – if possible combined into a single PDF document attached to the e-mail. Please see https://tinyurl.com/4jvkmajh for additional details.
All applications received by 1 October 2023 will be considered. Start dates are very flexible. Please address questions about the application to Dalibor Mikic / Ana Mendes (sec-ai@meduniwien.ac.at) and scientific questions to Christoph Bock (christoph.bock@meduniwien.ac.at).