Research Specialist in microbiome research with bioinformatics experience - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Do you want to contribute to improving human health?

The institution for microbiology, tumor- and cell biology (MTC) at Karolinska Institutet performs research and teaching within immunology, infection biology, cellular biology, and cancer. The Center for Translational Microbiome Research (CTMR) was started in January 2016 as a collaboration between Karolinska Institutet, Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab) and Ferring Pharmaceuticals. The center builds on a deep understanding of translational microbiome research and has established a broad technical, biological, clinical and epidemiological platform for studying complex microbiological communities in well-defined human materials. CTMR aims to better understand the contribution of the human microbiome to physiology and pathophysiology with the goal to open opportunities for development of novel therapies in the area of gastroenterology, reproductive health and neonatology.

Your mission

As a research specialist in microbiome research, you will focus on analysis work concerning the role of the microbiome in several different projects all focusing on studying the microbiome and its interaction with the human host. A central component of the role is to assume responsibility for assigned studies in order to establish analysis plans combining microbiome data with additional metadata such as omics-data, questionnaires, etc. in order to perform the analysis work in collaboration with other colleagues at CTMR and external research partners with the ambition to generate scientific publications. The successful candidate will be working in close collaboration with several different teams withing CTMR such as clinical epidemiology, bioinformatics, wet lab, as well as external collaborators outside of CTMR. The working language is English.

Eligibility requirements

To be eligible for employment as a Research Specialist, in addition to holding a Degree of Doctor, PhD, or having equivalent scientific expertise, the applicant must have demonstrated research expertise as well as have documented research experience after defending their doctoral dissertation.

In addition to the aforementioned requirements, the application must have:

• Previous experience working as a postdoc or other work position that generated equivalent experience
• Demonstrated ability to communicate both verbally and in text
• Demonstrated ability to author scientific articles
• Demonstrated ability to analyze human microbiome data sets
• Experience working in interdisciplinary teams
• Experience with at least one commonly used programming language (Python or R)

Additional skills that are especially meritorious for the position:

• Experience of research concerning the vaginal and/or gastrointestinal microbiome
• An understand of the unique properties that microbiome data exhibits and which statistical challenges arise from this
• Experience working with metadata for microbiome studies according to available standards, ontologies, and formatting (e.g. MIxS)
• Experience analyzing both marker gene and metagenome data from DNA or RNA using scientifically established methods
• Insight into epidemiological approaches and study design with a special focus on microbiome data
• Experience working on HPC-systems using bash and Slurm
• Experience working with version management systems (git/github)
• Experience working with containers for bioinformatics work (Docker, Singularity)
• Experience with techniques and frameworks for reproducible bioinformatics analyses, e.g. Snakemake or Nextflow

After an overall assessment of the expertise and merits of the applicants in relation to the subject area, Karolinska Institutet will determine which of them has the best potential to contribute to a positive development of the activities at KI.

What do we offer?

A creative and inspiring environment with wide-ranging expertise and interests. Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. Our vision is to pursue the development of knowledge about life and to promote a better health for all. At Karolinska Institutet, we conduct successful medical research and hold the largest range of medical education in Sweden. Karolinska Institutet is a state university, which entitles to several benefits such as extended holiday and generous occupational pension. Employees also have access to our modern gym for free and receive reimbursements for medical care.

Location: Solna

Application

We prefer that Your application is written in English, but You can also apply in Swedish. An application must contain the following documents: Resumé, qualifications and description of planned research, presented in accordance with Karolinska Institutet's qualifications portfolio.

The application must be submitted through the Varbi recruitment system.

Want to make a difference? Join us and contribute to better health for all