Summer 2025 – PhD Internship – Bioinformatics

Working with Us
Challenging. Meaningful. Life-changing. Those aren’t words that are usually associated with a job. But working at Bristol Myers Squibb is anything but usual. Here, uniquely interesting work happens every day, in every department. From optimizing a production line to the latest breakthroughs in cell therapy, this is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it. You’ll get the chance to grow and thrive through opportunities uncommon in scale and scope, alongside high-achieving teams rich in diversity. Take your career farther than you thought possible.

Bristol Myers Squibb recognizes the importance of balance and flexibility in our work environment. We offer a wide variety of competitive benefits, services and programs that provide our employees with the resources to pursue their goals, both at work and in their personal lives. Read more: careers.bms.com/working-with-us.

Position Summary

We are seeking a highly motivated PhD student to join our group for a paid 10-week summer internship program. The successful candidate will work with their mentor to combine systems biology analytical methods with spatially resolved RNA sequencing. We use a proprietary co-expression network construction algorithm to identify gene signatures in spatially resolved RNAseq in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). We will use spatial information to find associations between gene signatures and distance between tumor and stroma or other relevant tissue features. This project will help identify tumor-stroma interactions and help generate hypotheses for developing solid tumor CAR-T therapy. The candidate will join a multidisciplinary team within the Cancer Immunology and Cell Therapy (CICT) team and work in collaboration with disease subject matter experts. At the end of the summer, the candidate will present their results to the entire Informatics and Predictive Sciences group. The candidate will have an opportunity to learn from experienced computational biologists, collaborate with biologists and clinicians, and gain a better understanding of the complexities of drug development from an industry perspective.

Key Responsibilities

• Using and developing systems biology algorithms and machine learning methods
• Analyzing single-cell RNA sequencing or spatial transcriptomics data with the aim of deciphering immune, stromal and tumor cellular states and other disease properties to facilitate the development of novel therapeutics and to identify applications of existing therapies to improve patient outcome.
• Integrating independent datasets with differing sample and assay types to address fundamental questions in immune response and/or evasion.
• Deliver and communicate analysis results to the team

Qualifications & Experience

• A strong foundation in biochemistry, cancer biology or immunology
• Experience in applied statistics and machine learning
• Experience with RNA sequencing, bulk and single-cell – spatial transcriptomics a plus
• Experience in R or Python (R preferred)
• Experience with systems biology, network or graph theory is a plus
• Experience with version control systems such as Github is a plus
• Currently enrolled in a PhD program in computational biology, biostatistics, or a similar field
• Must be able to work full-time for the program’s duration
• Excellent communication and presentation skills

If you come across a role that intrigues you but doesn’t perfectly line up with your resume, we encourage you to apply anyway. You could be one step away from work that will transform your life and career.

Uniquely Interesting Work, Life-changing Careers
With a single vision as inspiring as “Transforming patients’ lives through science™ ”, every BMS employee plays an integral role in work that goes far beyond ordinary. Each of us is empowered to apply our individual talents and unique perspectives in an inclusive culture, promoting diversity in clinical trials, while our shared values of passion, innovation, urgency, accountability, inclusion and integrity bring out the highest potential of each of our colleagues.

On-site Protocol

BMS has a diverse occupancy structure that determines where an employee is required to conduct their work. This structure includes site-essential, site-by-design, field-based and remote-by-design jobs. The occupancy type that you are assigned is determined by the nature and responsibilities of your role:

Site-essential roles require 100% of shifts onsite at your assigned facility. Site-by-design roles may be eligible for a hybrid work model with at least 50% onsite at your assigned facility. For these roles, onsite presence is considered an essential job function and is critical to collaboration, innovation, productivity, and a positive Company culture. For field-based and remote-by-design roles the ability to physically travel to visit customers, patients or business partners and to attend meetings on behalf of BMS as directed is an essential job function.

BMS is dedicated to ensuring that people with disabilities can excel through a transparent recruitment process, reasonable workplace accommodations/adjustments and ongoing support in their roles. Applicants can request a reasonable workplace accommodation/adjustment prior to accepting a job offer. If you require reasonable accommodations/adjustments in completing this application, or in any part of the recruitment process, direct your inquiries to adastaffingsupport@bms.com. Visit careers.bms.com/eeo-accessibility to access our complete Equal Employment Opportunity statement.

BMS cares about your well-being and the well-being of our staff, customers, patients, and communities. As a result, the Company strongly recommends that all employees be fully vaccinated for Covid-19 and keep up to date with Covid-19 boosters.

BMS will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, pursuant to applicable laws in your area.

If you live in or expect to work from Los Angeles County if hired for this position, please visit this page for important additional information: https://careers.bms.com/california-residents/

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