Postdoctoral Researcher in microbiome and epidemiology

Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research?

The postdoc will work in an inter-disciplinary team with two principal investigators (in clinical/pharmaco-epidemiology and paediatric surgery) including master and PhD students and affiliated (clinical) researchers. We have a strong track record in clinical and pharmaco-epidemiology, and translational microbiome research and we work on various topics in women’s health, early life and cancer, with a focus on long-term effects of commonly prescribed drugs and other major microbiome modulating events. 

Your mission

The project

We now look for a postdoc to explore the interaction between exposure to prescribed drugs (during pregnancy and early life) and the microbiome, and the effects on longer-term health during childhood. Our hypothesis is that current microbiome findings in humans are heavily influenced by drug-microbiome interactions, in particular by commonly prescribed drugs including antibiotics and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). We also hypothesise that the impact of these microbiome-modulating drugs is stronger on the gut microbiome in infants than later in life; and that drug use also can cause neonatal complications, infections, weight gain and impaired neurodevelopment and general health of the child (independent of underlying morbidity) Therefore, the aim of the present project is to assess the impact of microbiome-modulating drugs on health during infancy and early life, through a potential disturbance of the gut microbiome. We define microbiome-modulating drugs as commonly prescribed drugs which may have a detrimental effect on the (gut) microbiome on population-level – with a main focus on antibiotics and other major microbiome modulating events.

Work tasks

Coordinating and driving research projects, from protocol stage to publication. Involvement in applications for ethics and ethical amendments. Performing data management, programming and analyses (epidemiological and microbiome bioinformatics in R, Python etc.) on Swedish Health Registry data and gut microbiome data (Shotgun metagenomics). (Co-)supervision of master and PhD students and (co-) application in further funding applications. There will be possibilities for further development (incl. pedagogic courses)

Your profile

To be eligible for employment as a postdoctor a doctoral degree or a foreign degree deemed to be equivalent to a Swedish 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.

We seek an enthusiastic and talented person with advanced epidemiological and microbiome bioinformatics training and documented scientific working experience, with a strong interest (and preferably track record) in women’s health and/or early life research. We expect strong computational and programming skills (data management, epidemiological/biostatistical analyses and microbiome bioinformatics). Working experience with Swedish and/or Nordic Health Registries (particularly Prescribed Drug Registry) is a strong merit, as well as documented experience with microbiome bioinformatics (Shotgun metagenomics, machine learning approaches). Excellent English skills (oral and written) are a prerequisite. Although we use English in all activities in our team, several Swedish-language data sources will be used. Therefore, a working proficiency in Swedish is also required.

We stress scientific expertise when assessing applicants (including scientific papers), relevant training, and previous supervision experience. Personal qualifications are curiosity, engagement and social competence as well as good time-management. Documented experience of coordinating projects is qualifying, as well as scientific publications in a related subject.

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

https://ki.se/en/people/nele-brusselaers

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)

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

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