Research Assistant - Structural Bioinformatics

Astera Institute • Emerybille, CA

37d • Onsite

About The Position

The diffUSE Project at Astera is developing open infrastructure for dynamic structural biology, aiming to make protein conformational and ensemble data easily discoverable, validated, and reusable. The Research Assistant will play a key role in this initiative by maintaining data pipelines, curating structural datasets, and performing validation checks on data from X-ray, cryo-EM, and ensemble derivations. This position involves close collaboration with Scientists and software engineers on technical tasks. It is a full-time, in-person role ideal for individuals at the beginning of their research careers seeking practical experience in structural biology data infrastructure within a dynamic, multidisciplinary setting. The successful candidate will be detail-oriented, capable of navigating ambiguity, and driven by the objective of enhancing the openness and reusability of scientific data.

Requirements

• BS or MS in bioinformatics, structural biology, computational biology, or a related field.
• Working proficiency in Python and familiarity with structural file formats (PDB, mmCIF, mtz).
• Strong organizational skills and close attention to detail in data handling.
• Comfortable working across computational and experimental teams in a research setting.

Nice To Haves

• Exposure to crystallography or cryo-EM data processing.
• Familiarity with PDB, EMDB, or related databases.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and run bioinformatic pipelines for structural data processing, curation, and quality control.
• Support development and benchmarking of validation metrics against experimental datasets.
• Assist with data deposition, formatting, and documentation to meet community data standards.
• Help prepare datasets, figures, and summaries for publications, reports, and presentations.
• Coordinate with Scientists and engineers on routine data management tasks and troubleshooting.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Associate degree