Research Assistant I

Mass General Brigham•Boston, MA

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Bhupathiraju Lab at Channing Division of Network Medicine (Department of Medicine, Mass General Brigham) is seeking a part-time Research Assistant to support an NIH-funded project investigating metabolomic signatures of flavonoid rich foods and their relationships with type 2 diabetes. The Research Assistant will work under the supervision of Dr. Bhupathiraju and will focus on high-dimensional data analysis of metabolomics and dietary datasets using R and Python. This position is well suited for a quantitatively oriented candidate interested in metabolomics, nutritional epidemiology, and data science.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Data Science, Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Nutrition, or a related quantitative field; or current enrollment in a MPH program.
Demonstrated experience working with high-dimensional or large epidemiologic data.
Proficiency in R and/or Python for data management, statistical analysis, and visualization.
Working knowledge of machine learning methods
Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
Excellent written and oral communication skills.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience with metabolomics or other omics data (e.g., genomics, proteomics).
Experience with R packages such as tidyverse, data.table, lme4, survival, glmnet, or Python libraries such as pandas, numpy, scikit-learn, and statsmodels.
Familiarity with dietary assessment data (e.g., FFQs, 24-hour recalls) and/or nutritional epidemiology.
Experience with reproducible research tools (R Markdown, Quarto, Jupyter, Git/GitHub).
Experience contributing to scientific manuscripts or conference abstracts.

Responsibilities

Import, clean, and manage large, high-dimensional datasets, including metabolomic profiles, dietary intake, and clinical covariates.
Conduct statistical and multivariable analyses in R and/or Python, including: Data preprocessing and normalization of metabolomics data, Dimension reduction (e.g., PCA) and clustering methods, Regression and other modeling approaches to relate diet to metabolomic patterns and cardiometabolic outcomes.
Create reproducible analysis pipelines and documentation (R scripts, Python notebooks, Git/GitHub version control).
Generate tables, figures, and visualizations for abstracts, manuscripts, and presentations.
Assist with interpretation of findings and drafting of analytic and methods sections.
Participate in regular lab and project meetings; present interim analyses as needed.
Adhere to all Mass General Brigham policies regarding data security, privacy, and research compliance (including IRB requirements and HIPAA).
Perform other related duties as assigned.