PhD positions

We welcome motivated students to join our group. Applicants should first read our Research page to understand our current projects and see whether your interests align.

We typically have one PhD opening per year. Applicants may come from backgrounds including computer science, biomedical engineering, bioinformatics, or computational biology.

If you are interested in this position, please send an email to chenz@sanken.osaka-u.ac.jp with:

  1. Your CV (education, publications, and relevant projects).
  2. Language proficiency test scores (English or Japanese; Japanese is not required).
  3. One-page research statement describing which research direction in our group interests you most and how your past experience prepares you for this work.

For official admission requirements and application procedures, please refer to the Osaka University Graduate School of Information Science and Technology website:

  • Japanese: https://www.ist.osaka-u.ac.jp/japanese/examinees/admission/
  • English: https://www.ist.osaka-u.ac.jp/english/examinees/admission/

Please use the subject line: Application – PhD.

Research assistant (RA) positions - AI for drug discovery

Our team recruit RAs to work on projects aiming for publications in top AI conferences (e.g., ICLR, NeurIPS) or leading bioinformatics journals. Below are two typical profiles.

RA-1. You will help build agentic AI data analysis pipelines for drug discovery projects using real-world data.

  • Comfortable with Python and basic TypeScript/JavaScript.
  • Some experience with LLM agents, deployment, and tool calling.
  • Familiarity with LangChain, LangGraph, or similar frameworks for agent orchestration (HITL, durable execution).
  • Basic prompt engineering and database knowledge (SQL/NoSQL) are a plus.

RA-2. You will work on genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics data analysis and integration.

  • Experience with R and/or Python, and bioinformatics tools such as Bioconductor.
  • Familiarity with experimental design and data generation workflows in genomics, transcriptomics, or metabolomics.
  • Background in computational or systems biology (e.g., stoichiometric or kinetic metabolic models) or multi-omics disease/metabolic data analysis is highly welcome.

To apply for an RA position, please email chenz@sanken.osaka-u.ac.jp with a CV highlighting technical skills and relevant projects.

Please use the subject line: Application – RA.