Karolinska Institutet, MEB

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

We are now seeking a postdoctoral fellow in eating disorder genetics to join professor Cynthia Bulik's group at the Karolinska Institutet.

Division
The Centre for Eating Disorders Innovation (CEDI) at MEB was established by Professor Cynthia Bulik under the auspices of the Swedish Research Council. We are dedicated to applying novel and emerging methodologies and technologies to elucidate causal mechanisms underlying eating disorders and related phenotypes. 

Duties
The overarching goal of CEDI is to discover how the genome, the microbiome, and the environment act and interact to modify the risk for eating disorders. Our studies aim to discover the molecular and cellular mechanisms that are involved in these processes. 

The postdoctoral fellow will be deeply involved with analyses associated with the Eating Disorders Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC-ED). In addition, we have GWAS data available from the Anorexia Genetics Initiative (ANGI) which includes Illumina GRA array genotypes and deep phenotypic information from 4000 indivduals with anorexia nervosa and 4000 healthy controls in Sweden, linkable to national registers. In-depth and large-scale studies of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder are also in progress at the center with multi-omics microbiome data for genome interaction studies also becoming available shortly. The fellow will have full access to analytic networking provided by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and will be encouraged to build collaborative relationships with other analysts.

The postdoctoral projects will focus on genome-wide association studies of deep phenotypic information in eating disorders, and studying the effect of background polygenic risk burden on the co-morbidity profiles in individuals with eating disorders. Post-doctoral fellows will also be encouraged to develop their own research ideas and independent projects that align with CEDI and PGC goals.

Entry requirements
A person is eligible for a position as postdoctoral research fellow if they have obtained a PhD no more than seven years before the last date of the postdoc employment.

Applicants should have a PhD degree in epidemiology, biostatistics, bioinformatics, statistical genetics, or genetics, as well as experience in high-level analysis of modern genomic datasets (including genome-wide association). Experience in analyzing and integrating other types of omics data sets such as RNA-seq, exome sequencing, or metabolomic data is desirable. Due to the demands of modern genomics we also require skills in programming (e.g., R, python, SAS), use of standard software packages imputation (e.g., for GWAS, imputation, NGS data analysis), bioinformatic integration, use of computational clusters, knowledge on polygenic risk score analyses, or similar knowledge. Specific knowledge of psychiatric genomics (particularly for eating disorders) is highly desirable.

The applicant should be highly collegial, experienced in working in “team science” contexts, possess excellent organizational skills, know how to successfully multitask, and should be able to describe past examples of solving unanticipated and complex problems. Excellent oral and written communication skills in English are required, along with experience with writing and publishing research articles in English.

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 previous work with individuals with eating disorders
  4. A summary of experience with in high-level analysis, programming, bioinformatic integration, and pathway analysis.   
  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 salary
Number of positions 1
Full-time equivalent Full time
City Stockholm
County Stockholms län
Country Sweden
Reference number 2-7176/2018
Contact
  • Sara Tiste/HR-officer, sara.tiste@ki.se
  • Cynthia Bulik, cynthia.bulik@ki.se
  • Virpi Leppä, +46 (0)8-524 824 95, virpi@leppa@ki.se
  • Bengt Fundin, +46 (0)8-524 870 02, bengt.fundin@ki.se
Union representative
  • Ulrika Zagai, SACO, ulrika.zagai@ki.se
  • Ann Almqvist, OFR, ann.almqvist@ki.se
  • Henry Wölling, SEKO, henry.wolling@ki.se
Published 14.Dec.2018
Last application date 08.Feb.2019 11:59 PM CET

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