Senior Research Specialist in biostatistic - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research?

The Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (MEB) is one of the largest departments of epidemiology in Europe with a special focus on increasing our knowledge of the etiology of various diseases. Our department consists of researchers, doctoral students, biostatisticians, data collectors and database administrators as well as administrative staff, a total of about 250 employees. The department is located on Campus Solna. More information is available at ki.se/meb

Our research group conducts research aimed at improving the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. The research spans register-based retrospective studies, AI development and image analysis, genomic analyses and precision medicine, as well as innovative clinical trials.

Description of the subject area

Every year, about 3,000 Swedish men develop metastatic prostate cancer. ProBio is an outcome-adaptive, multi-arm, biomarker-driven platform study to determine whether treatment choices for this patient group based on genomic biomarker profile can prolong progression-free survival in men with metastatic prostate cancer. ProBio is the first biomarker-driven outcome-adaptive trial for metastatic prostate cancer, designed to accelerate the implementation of new results generated by molecular epidemiology in routine clinical care. ProBio includes several interdisciplinary innovations including liquid biopsy-based molecular profiling, novel features in the clinical study design and dedicated solutions for logistics and clinical implementation. The study is analyzed within a Bayesian framework where alternative treatments will be compared within the biomarker's signatures in terms of their probability of being better than standard treatment. The role as a senior research specialist in biostatistics is anchored in the ProBio study, in order to drive the statistical analyzes and the method development required within ProBio.

Your mission

Your role is to act as a scientifically driven statistician, primarily in the ProBio study, but also other clinical studies and registry studies aimed at improving the detection and treatment of prostate cancer and other diseases (eg breast cancer and COVID).

Eligibility requirements

To be eligible for employment as a Senior Research Specialist, in addition to holding a Degree of Doctor, PhD, or having equivalent scientific expertise, the applicant must have demonstrated good level of research expertise with significant scientific production. The applicant must also have demonstrated a good scientific independence to which their own contribution has been significant and a research plan of high quality with clear potential for the future.

A doctoral degree with a focus on biostatistics is a requirement. A strong background and experience of time-to-event analysis as well as experience of design and analysis of clinical trials and epidemiological studies, from work with register-based data, and of presenting and visualizing results in scientific journals are requirements.

Proven skills in statistical programming (primarily R) and mastery of manipulating complex datasets are strong merits. Fluent English in writing and speaking is important, knowledge of Swedish and additional languages ​​is also an advantage.

The successful applicant must have documented experience of outcome-adaptive multi-arm platform studies, of working in a clinical trial, together with data safety and monitoring boards (or similar groups), of writing statistical analysis plans for multi-arm outcome-adaptive platform studies. Completed course in GCP (good clinical practice) is a strong merit.

Assessment criteria

For employment as Senior Research Specialist at Karolinska Institutet, the eligibility requirements and assessment criteria stated in the Rules regarding other positions than teaching positions are applied in relation to the established profile of employment.

The following experiences and knowledge will be assessed:

• Experience in simulations to estimate operating characteristics such as statistical power and errors of type 1 and 2 for multi-armed outcome-adaptive platform studies.
• Very good knowledge of the statistical programming language R.
• Experience in visualizing and presenting results from multi-armed outcome-adaptive platform studies, in particular for data safety and monitoring boards and similar groups in clinical trials.
• Data from circulating tumor DNA to determine treatment choices for men with metastatic prostate cancer.
• Documented experience of drug studies for diseases other than prostate cancer, preferably breast cancer (prevention or treatment) and COVID.
• Good knowledge of English and Swedish and additional languages.
• Original scientific work in multi-armed platform studies.
• Involvement in national and international collaborative groups (outside the most recent research department) with the result of co-authoring peer-reviewed scientific articles.
• Good ability to present and discuss scientific material in national and international contexts.
• Good experience of teaching for different audiences (biostatisticians and epidemiologists and clinics) and at different levels (master's degree and doctoral level).
• Responsibility as a supervisor at master's or higher level.

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 applications will be reviewed by external reviewers.

Welcome to apply at the latest 16 March 2022.

The application must be submitted through the Varbi recruitment system.

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