Karolinska Institutet

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

Division: KI Psychiatric Genomics Institute (KI-PGI)
We are seeking a new post doc who will work at the KI Psychiatric Genomics Institute (KI-PGI), which is a research program at Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (MEB), established under the auspices of the Swedish Research Council (www.ki.se/pgi). PGI is a systematic program established to evaluate the epidemiological, molecular, and cellular effects of genetic risk loci for psychiatric disorders. The research is highly trans-disciplinary with deep collaborations within the KI, Sweden, Europe, the US, and Australia. Multiple large data collection efforts have been based at MEB, and new efforts are in progress.

Duties
The overarching goals of the KI-PGI are: on a population scale, how do genes and environment act and interact to modify risk for the cardinal psychiatric disorders? By what molecular and cellular mechanisms do these genes act? We have data from large case-control studies of schizophrenia, and all subjects have been comprehensively evaluated with genome-wide association arrays, copy number variation, exome array, and whole exome sequencing. Larger studies in progress are the Swedish schizophrenia study S3 (www.ki.se/s3) and the GAPS consortium (Genomic Aggregation Project in Sweden, www.ki.se/gaps). We are very interested in integrating genomic findings in the context of Swedish and Nordic population epidemiological studies. In the last 3 years, psychiatric geneticists in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have formed a coherent consortium focused on using harmonized genomic data to improve the clinical care of people with schizophrenia and other disorders, the TRYGGVE2 project, where joint analyses of genomic and register based health data will be performed.

Additional on-going studies are using functional genomic data and we have active projects on brain epigenomics, single cell RNA-sequencing, and Hi-C.

For more information, please see PubMed IDs 23974872 24776740 24463508 25056061 22777127 28686353

Entry requirements
A person is eligible for a position as Postdoctoral Researcher if he or she has obtained a PhD within the last 3 years.

Applicants should have a PhD degree in epidemiology, biostatistics, or genetics, as well as substantial experience in high-level analysis of multiple types of modern genomic datasets (e.g., genome-wide association, exome sequencing, whole genome sequencing, RNA-sequencing). Modern genomics also requires proven skills in programming (e.g., R, python, SAS), use of standard software packages (e.g., PLINK, IMPUTE/MACH, GATK), flexibly manipulating large datasets, bioinformatic integration, and pathway analysis.

An in-depth knowledge of complex trait genomics is very important. Specific knowledge of psychiatric genomics (particularly for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, eating disorders, or major depressive disorder) is similarly crucial. Knowledge of the principles of GxE analysis is important. The applicant should be highly collegial, experienced in working in “team science” contexts, possess exceptional organizational skills, know how to successfully multitask, and should be able to describe past examples of having developed structured approaches to solving unanticipated and complex problems. Excellent oral and written communication skills in English are required, along with ample experience with writing and publishing research articles in English.

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

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

  1. A complete curriculum vitae, including date of the thesis defence, title of the thesis, previous academic positions, academic title, current position, academic distinctions, and committee work
  2. A complete list of publications
  3. A summary of current work (no more than one page)
  4. Verifications for crediting of illness, military service, work for labour unions or student organisations, parental leave or similar circumstances
  5. Verification from the thesis defence committee or the equivalent (only if the thesis defence is scheduled within three months after the application deadline)

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

Type of employment Temporary position
Contract type Full time
First day of employment According to agreement
Salary Monthly
Number of positions 1
Full-time equivalent 100%
City Stockholm
County Stockholms län
Country Sweden
Reference number 2-2477/2018
Contact
  • HR officer/Sara Tiste/sara.tiste@ki.se, +46 (0) 8-524 822 84
  • Project Manager/Anna Kähler/anna.kahler@ki.se, +46 (0) 8-524 852 59
  • Project Manager/Susanne Kerje/susanne.kerje@ki.se, +46 (0) 8-524 824 85
  • Professor/Patrick Sullivan/, patrick.sullivan@ki.se
Union representative
  • Ulrika Zagai, SACO, 08--524 871 84, ulrika.zagai@ki.se
  • Ann Almqvist, OFR, 08-524 861 99
  • Henry Wölling, SEKO, henry.wolling@ki.se
Published 02.May.2018
Last application date 23.May.2018 11:59 PM CEST

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