At AstraZeneca, Computational Pathology is part of the Oncology Translational Medicine department within our Oncology R&D organisation. AstraZeneca’s vision in Oncology is to push the boundaries of science to change the practice of medicine, transform the lives of patients living with cancer, and to ultimately eliminate cancer as a cause of death.

The Computational Pathology team was established with the acquisition of Definiens. At our state of the art site in Munich, we are changing the way imaging technologies are combined with other omics technologies and clinical patient data to offer unprecedented insight and impact. We empower translational science to transform cancer treatment with impactful information derived from biomedical image by innovating at the interface between Artificial Intelligence, pathology and data sciences.

We currently have an open position for a Pathologist to join our Munich team and focus on digital pathology. This is a unique opportunity to play a major role in delivering life saving treatments to thousands of patients!

Responsibilities

Description of Responsibility & Tasks

• Delivering pathology to all Computational Pathology teams and AstraZeneca Translational Medicine teams from wet lab to image analysis and data interpretation
• Offering scientific and pathology support for the design, reviewing and execution of translational projects and biomarker studies
• Reviewing and characterizing (scoring) slides for assay optimization and validation, and for image analysis including Quality Control/Quality Assurance aspects
• Establishing morpho-molecular correlations to inform the selection of markers and the interpretation of results for biomarker studies
• Creating high-quality labels (annotations) for the training and testing/validation of machine-learning algorithms
• Supporting the development and quality assessment of heuristic (rule-based) image analysis solutions in close collaboration with responsible teams
• Providing consultation for the execution of computational pathology activities in collaboration with data (image analysis) scientists
• Introducing pathology and image analysis concepts to constantly improve the digital and computational pathology workflow
• Keeping abreast of research in the field of image analysis and machine learning for pathology
• Assessing image analysis tools and platforms with the aim of increasing efficiency while maintaining the quality of data generation
• Providing feedback and user experience to the software development and application teams
• Serving as the point of contact for pathology in AZ teams
• Providing pathology and scientific consultation on translational project teams
• Promoting collaboration within the global AZ pathology team to ensure knowledge transfer and harmonized ways of working
• Adhering to the use of standard methodologies in translational and digital pathology in collaboration with QM / Reg. Affairs and the global pathology team
• Properly implementing of annotation guidelines and QC strategy
• Monitoring internal and external annotation tasks for pathologists and scientists
• Assisting, as required, with the general operational management of the pathology group

Required Qualification

Education

• Medical (M.D.) or veterinary degree (D.V.M.) and board certified in anatomical/surgical pathology or similar qualifications

Professional Experience (Scope, Years)

• At least 2 years of relevant experience in tissue biomarker discovery and analysis (if possible, in pharmaceutical/diagnostic industry)
• Good knowledge in tissue diagnostics (histology, cytology, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, molecular pathology, genetics)
• Familiar with digital and computational pathology is an advantage
• Proven track record in cancer diagnostics (oncology)

Skills and Proficiencies

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Strong team working skills
• Ability to effectively interact with internal and external business partners

Next steps? Apply now!

Date Posted

Closing Date

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity.  We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills.  We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.  We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics.  We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.