Postdoctoral Researcher in Psychiatric Genetic Epidemiology - 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 conducts research in epidemiology and biostatistics across a broad range of areas within biomedical science. The department is among the largest of its type in Europe and has especially strong research profiles in psychiatric, cancer, reproductive, pediatric, pharmaco, genetic, and geriatric epidemiology, eating disorders, precision medicine, and biostatistics.

Part of the success of our department is due to our collaborative spirit where one factor is that researchers at the Department share and co-finance common resources (e.g., IT and an applied biostatistics group). The department is situated at campus Solna. Further information can be found at http://ki.se/en/meb

The KI-Psychiatric Genomics Institute (KI-PGI) at MEB conducts genetic research in major psychiatric disorders, e.g., major depressive disorders. We are one of the leading psychiatric genetics research groups worldwide, led by Prof Patrick Sullivan who is the founder of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and the Principal Researcher Lu Yi. We are deeply collaborative, and actively work with at least 10 major genetic, psychiatric, neuroscience, and functional genomic groups within the KI, Sweden, Europe, Australia, and the US.

Your mission

The overall aim of this postdoctoral research is to disentangle the genetic underpinning of psychiatric disorders, particularly major depressive disorders, and to develop machine learning algorithms to predict the poor outcomes associated with these disorders. We seek an outstanding and innovative postdoc to join our team. We are data-rich, and need a professional-level data scientist to maximize our understanding of the data we have collected and to identify new data that we need to make. This individual should be passionately committed to furthering knowledge of severe psychiatric disorders in order to improve the lives of people. The successful applicant will join the KI-PGI team and conduct research on the genomics of severe psychiatric disorders leveraging “multi-omic” approaches and/or ML approaches to high dimensional and complex register data. The duties will require the use of advanced statistics and genetics tools, as well as high-performance computing resources (such as UPPMAX at Uppsala University).

The open position is for a dedicated postdoctoral researcher for a duration of two-three years. The start date for the position is January 2024.

Your profile

The position requires a PhD degree with focus on psychiatry, genetics, epidemiology, biostatistics, statistics, or a closely related field.

The applicant should also have the following: 

• Knowledge and experience with classic and modern statistical methods in the genetics field (e.g., structural equation modelling, GWAS, polygenic risk score).
• Knowledge and practical skills of epidemiological study designs and statistical analysis (e.g., linear and logistic regression, survival analysis, generalised estimating equation, meta-analysis, prediction modelling).
• Prior experience working with large data including genomic and register data.
• Experience in managing and analysing data using advanced programming languages and software (e.g., R, SAS, Python, Bash).
• Experience working with computational clusters.
• Exceptional organizational skills and project management.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English, along with experience with scientific writing.

The work involves close collaboration with others and demands flexibility and excellent communication skills. A high degree of accuracy and independence is also important. We attach great importance to personal qualities in this recruitment.

To be eligible for employment as a postdoc, a doctoral degree or a foreign degree deemed to be equivalent to a doctoral degree is required. This eligibility requirement must be fulfilled at the latest at the time of the employment decision. It is considered as an advantage if you have completed your doctoral degree within the last three years, if there are special reasons, your degree may have been completed earlier.

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. At Karolinska Institutet, we conduct successful medical research and hold the largest range of medical education in Sweden. At KI, you get to meet researchers working with a wide range of specialisms and methods, giving you ample opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience with the various scientific fields within medicine and health. It is the crossover collaborations, which have pushed KI to where it is today, at the forefront of global research. Several of the people you meet in healthcare are educated at KI. A close relationship with the health care providers is important for creating groundbreaking top quality education and research. Karolinska Institutet is also a state university, which entitles you to several benefits through our collective agreement.

Location: Solna

Choose to work at KI – Ten reasons why

Application

An employment application must contain the following documents in English or Swedish:

• A complete resumé, including date of the thesis defence, title of the thesis, previous academic positions, academic title, current position, academic distinctions, and committee work
• A complete list of publications
• A summary of current work (no more than one page)

Welcome to apply!

The application is to be submitted through the Varbi recruitment system.

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