The Canadian Centre for Computational Genomics (C3G) and the Bourque Lab at McGill University are accepting applications for summer internship positions taking place from May 1 to August 31, 2024.

C3G is a bioinformatics and computational genomics academic platform that provides case-by-case consulting services for the analysis and organization of large genomic data sets in addition to developing software solutions for the research community.

We are seeking applicants with a strong interest in bioinformatics and specifically candidates who want to work in any of the summer projects described in the links below:



Our group is directly involved in the bioinformatics analysis of large-scale genomics projects such as the Terry Fox Foundation’s Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network and the Pan-Canadian Genomic Library. The complexity of these analyses, coupled with the number of samples involved, means that proper workflow and data management are key components to ensure the success of the projects. We have developed an open-source workflow management system called GenPipes where we implement standard bioinformatics analyses, as well as a database that integrates with it. As part of their summer internship, the successful candidate will contribute to the development of GenPipes and work on data curation to ensure the database is accurate and reflects the analyses carried out so far. Students with an interest in big data, genomics and bioinformatics are encouraged to apply.

Secure Data for Health (SD4H) is a community cloud deployed with OpenStack. The equipment consists of CPU and GPU nodes along with four types of storage, including 5 PB of Object Store and a 1 PB of high performance CephFS  posix system. One of the main goals of the platform is to provide the scientific community with computational resources that are both elastic and secure.

The student will be asked to work on the configuration and deployment of a CACAO instance (Cloud Automation & Continuous Analysis Orchestration, https://cyverse.org/cacao, https://gitlab.com/cyverse/cacao/) and adapt the Magic Castle’s Cacao configuration (https://github.com/c3g/magic_castle/tree/main/.cacao) so it uses the capability of our infrastructure.



The C3G Data Team is involved in data management for many large scale genomics and epigenomics projects including the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network led by the Terry Fox Research Institute, the Canadian COVID-19 Genomics Network (BQC19, Hostseq and VirusSeq), Terry Fox PRecision Oncology For Young peopLE (PROFYLE), the Canadian Epigenetics, Environment and Health Research Consortium (CEEHRC), and more.

They have common needs to organize clinical, samples, experiments and processing data, enabling FAIR sharing across consortia members, and the research community. By contributing to the elaboration and implementation of standards from international initiatives such as the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH), International Human Epigenome Consortium (IHEC), and Digital Health and Discovery Platform (DHDP), we are part of the solution to ensure that data from genomics projects remain usable now, and in future data analysis initiatives.

To support these projects, we have developed the Bento web platform (https://github.com/Bento-Platform), a modular software infrastructure with services specialized in data organization following widely accepted standards. For instance, the Katsu service organizes clinical, samples and experiments data using standards established by GA4GH and the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC).

We are offering an opportunity in software development to help with the development of data navigation and visualization tools for the Bento platform, helping our users to make better sense of their data. Our development stack involves React with Ant Design in the front-end, and back-end services using Python, Go, PostgreSQL and Elasticsearch.

Taliun Lab develops and applies computational methods, pipelines and analytical web-based tools for gene-disease association analyses using whole genome sequencing data. We use Python, C/C++, Java, and JavaScript with state-of-the-art web development frameworks (such as Vue.js) and workflow managers (such as Nextflow). We utilize large Linux-based high-performance computing clusters with hundreds of CPUs for our data analyses. We have more than ten methods/tools development projects to which you could contribute, learn more about human genetics and disease, and test your programming skills to the fullest. Examples of the projects are developing a web-based service for genetic ancestry estimation and ancestry-based sample matching, developing a web-based service for genotype imputation, developing a web-based interactive visualization of genetic structural variants, and developing data encryption algorithms for secure genetic data analyses.

Our platform is currently tasked with performing secondary genomic analyses as part of the TFRI Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network Québec (MoH-Q) project. We are seeking candidates to do an internship focused on developing an interactive dashboard that will enhance our current progress and key metrics report. This internship will be an opportunity to learn about data visualization techniques and cancer genome bioinformatics pipelines.

Eligibility

  • Must be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or hold a valid Canadian study permit.
  • Must be an undergraduate or graduate student, returning to their current registered faculty in the 2024 fall semester.
  • Availability for full-time commitment for the duration of the internship.

Planned Start & End Date

May 1 to August 31, 2024.

Work Location

Hybrid remote and on-site at the McGill Genome Centre, 740 Docteur Penfield, Montréal, Québec H3A 1G0, or at the C3G offices in 1010 Sherbrooke W . Frequent on-site attendance may be required by the supervisor.

Hours/Week & Schedule And Hourly Wage

Interns will be paid via stipend/award, bi-weekly payments, fixed hourly rate starting at $17.50, usually for 33.75 hours per week.

Application Deadline

Friday, February 23, 2024, 12 PM (noon) EST.

Selection Process

Shortlisted candidates will be contacted within two weeks after the application deadline.

How To Apply

Complete the form at computationalgenomics.ca/careers-internships, selecting Internship as the type of opportunity. Please indicate which projects/areas described above are of most interest to you.