The Ideker Laboratory is in the Division of Human Genetics and Precision Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine. We are a vibrant research team of 30-40 staff, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students known for its dynamic and collaborative environment. We perform bioinformatics research coupled with wet-lab investigations, working in the areas of network biology, data-driven hierarchical modeling, and machine learning applied to biomedicine. We also support multiple open-source software projects, some with 100K+ users.
Ideker Lab develops bioinformatic resources for network analysis that are widely used by the biological and biomedical research community. The best known is Cytoscape, a collaborative open-source platform for visualizing and analyzing complex networks. Cytoscape is widely used, with tens of thousands of downloads per month and more than 25,000 citations from research papers. NDEx, the Network Data Exchange, is another major project. NDEx is a public web resource for sharing, storing, accessing, and publishing biological networks on the cloud. For more information about the Cytoscape Ecosystem & NDEx Network Cloud, visit the Software & Platforms page.
Inquires about positions with the Software Development Team may be directed to Jing Chen (jic002@health.ucsd.edu)
The Ideker Lab is in open recruitment for exceptional graduate students, postdocs, and senior research scientists to work across multiple laboratory projects. Prior to submitting an inquiry on available research positions, please watch Dr. Ideker’s recorded talk from AACR 2021, his keynote from the First IDSI Conference 2022, and most importantly, review our Research Projects and Publications relevant to the work that interests you. We have also posted a partial list of open projects.
Postdocs & Senior Research Scientists
Applicants for computational studies must have a PhD in bioinformatics, computer science or a related discipline, a strong background in machine learning and bioinformatics. Applicants for experimental ‘omics studies must have a PhD in the biological sciences with a strong background in genetics and genomics. All applicants must have a history of productive publication. If interested in applying for a position, submit your cover letter, CV, and three professional references to idekeradmin@ucsd.edu
Effective Spring 2026: Thank you for your interest in the Ideker lab, however, we are not currently recruiting new students or rotation projects at this time.
Graduate Students (PhD)
Dr. Ideker is affiliated with the following graduate programs at UC San Diego:
If you have been admitted to a UCSD PhD program and are interested in a Graduate Student Researcher position (including rotations) in the Ideker Lab, please submit your CV and professional references to idekeradmin@ucsd.edu
Graduate Students (MS)
The Ideker lab typically holds interviews for Master of Science (MS) students twice yearly, during the first week of Fall and Spring Quarters. If interested in interviewing, please submit a brief summary of your relevant research interests, your CV, and professional references to idekeradmin@ucsd.edu
Prospective UCSD Students
Admission to UC San Diego is determined by the university, not individual labs. Only students admitted to a relevant graduate program may be considered for joining our group. More information about graduate admissions can be found here: https://grad.ucsd.edu/admissions/