Postdoctoral Researcher in in Gastrointestinal Epidemiology

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

Description of the subject area

The gastrointestinal epidemiology group at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (MEB) is now looking for a postdoc who wants to understand and prevent gastrointestinal disease. Our research group consists of epidemiologists, clinicians, and database administrators and provides a vibrant and stimulating working atmosphere.

Sweden is renowned for its world-class nationwide health registers. Based on these registers, the Swedish ESPRESSO research group have produced outstanding papers and advanced our understanding in fields such as coeliac disease, oesophageal disease, IBD, hepatology but also colorectal cancer. Through linkage with the personal identity number, it is possible to combine information from e.g. the nationwide Swedish Medical Birth Register, the Patient Register, the Cause of Death Register, the Cancer Register, the Prescribed Drug Register and different quality registers. However, a limitation of these registers is the absence of histopathology data. Through a nationwide collection of computerised biopsy report data from all Swedish 28 pathology departments we have succeeded in creating a database of about 2.6 million individuals (with 8.3 million unique biopsy reports) who have undergone a biopsy of the gastrointestinal tract (intestine/liver/pancreas/gall bladder). The cohort is known under its acronym ESPRESSO (Epidemiology Strengthened by histoPathology Reports in Sweden).

A description of the cohort can be found here.

Your mission

Your main responsibilities will be to perform research in gastrointestinal epidemiology, exploring risk factors and prognosis of diseases where histopathology is essential. At our department, you will have vast opportunities to engage and participate in various research forums, outside as well as inside the department. MEB is an inclusive workplace, encouraging collaborative departmental and interdisciplinary research, and we have an infrastructure to support our approach. The position requires a high level of statistical/mathematical competence, and to absorb necessary knowledge on gastrointestinal disease aetiology, epidemiology and register-based research.

For examples of our research, please see PubMed ”ludvigsson jf[author]” or visit https://ki.se/en/research/research-areas-centres-and-networks/research-groups/gastrointestinal-epidemiology-jonas-ludvigssons-research-group#tab-espresso

The appointment will be for 2 years, with a possible extension after evaluation.

Your profile

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

Applicants should have a PhD degree in epidemiology, biostatistics or equivalent, as well as substantial experience of standard statistical regression techniques.
An in-depth knowledge of gastrointestinal disease is very important. The applicant should have skills in R, SAS, STATA, SPSS or equivalent statistical software.

Having worked in gastrointestinal epidemiology is an important merit.

The applicant should be highly collegial, skilled in team-work but also have the ability to work independently. Further, the applicant should possess organizational skills, know how to successfully multitask, and should be able to describe past examples of having solved unanticipated and complex research problems. Experience in register based research, preferably in pregnancy or gastroenterology, is meriting. So is experience of working with linked routinely collected healthcare data is meriting. Excellent oral and written communication skills in English are required, along with experience in writing and publishing research articles in English in international journals indexed on PubMed.

The applicant should have excellent analytical skills and have capacity to take responsibility for specific research projects. Further, the applicant should have the skill set to be involved in supervision of PhD students, including the necessary communicational skills.

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.

You will be offered weekly supervision by professor Ludvigsson, and there will be opportunities to participate in international research meetings.

Location: Solna

Choose to work at KI – Ten reasons why

Application

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

• PhD certificate
• 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 personal letter (no more than a page)
• A complete list of publications
• A summary of current work (no more than one page)

As part of your application we invite you submit your solution to a statistical problem.

Download the instructions for the statistical task from the below GitHub folder. Please name the document with your solution: ”celiac” and submit with all other requested documents. Do not upload any documents to the GitHub folder.

You will find the statistical files needed and further instructions for this exercise here: https://github.com/bjoroeKI/Celiac  

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

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