Karolinska Institutet, Department of Women's and Children's Health

The Department is organized in 10 divisions: Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Pediatric Endocrinology, Pediatric Surgery, Neuropediatrics, Pediatric Oncology, Neonatology, Reproductive Endocrinology, Neuropsychiatry (KIND), Reproductive and Perinatal Health. The divisions have separate scientific profiles and vary in size and have several research groups, dealing with both basic and clinical science.

Division
The Division of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology is a research unit consisting of several research groups working on studies of childhood cancer. The goal of the division is to increase knowledge about childhood cancer and thereby be able to develop better treatment, and improve diagnostics and monitoring tools for children with cancer and severe blood disorders, and provide better support in the care of patients and families. To reach this goal we are working translationally, from gene- and cell-based studies to epidemiological, psychosocial and clinical studies.

Job Description
We are currently seeking a qualified, highly motivated individual for a Computational Biologist position. The successful candidate will have profound theoretical and practical knowledge in biology, with an emphasis on bioinformatics. The work associated with this position will be part of the daily activities of the Division of Paediatric Oncology and Haematology. The goals for this position are: 1) To provide bioinformatics analysis support to biologists and clinicians in interdisciplinary childhood cancer research projects, 2) to develop and design code to utilize bioinformatics tools and computational biology analysis methodologies, and 3) be involved in the preparation of data and results for publications or dissemination as part of databases, web sites and other resources. This will require the incumbent to apply high-level, scientific expertise and technical mastery to create pipeline tools that enable the next-generation sequencing analysis (NGS) of DNA and RNA and related data visualization.

Basic Qualifications
The position can be filled either by a junior computational biologist with the ambition to grow in our division, or a senior computational biologist with academic ambitions. Therefore, the applicant must either have completed:

  • a bachelor level education in mathematics, physics or biology or equivalent with strong bioinformatics and coding skills, preferably documented with a master level degree,

or

  • postdoctoral training with good results and a proven track-record such as publications within the field of computational biology. A starting grant and an interesting research program are then considered as meriting.

Responsibilities

  • Assist in developing pipelines using internal and external cloud computing resources and high-performance computing
  • Perform complex cancer genomics data analysis
  • Perform DNA-sequencing analysis, such as whole genome, whole exome and epigenome analysis
  • Perform RNA-sequencing analysis, such as whole transcriptome, splice isoform and miRNA analysis
  • Develop new analysis strategies and methodologies to address problems in cancer and translational medicine
  • Perform complex bioinformatic and computational biology analyses of cancer datasets to be utilized by biologists, clinicians and researchers
  • Collaborate in multiple cancer research projects as part of an interdisciplinary team of scientists, medical researchers, clinicians and biostatisticians
  • Plan projects for and together with staff and students and provide guidance during process and progress

Entry requirements
We are seeking a BSc, MSc or PhD (or equivalent) with a sincere interest in translational research on childhood cancers at our unit. The successful applicant is required to be able to work both independently and to integrate properly with the research groups. In light of this, we highly value a curious, problem solving and flexible mindset. The candidate should also be self-motivated, have excellent communications skills and a proven ability to interact effectively and productively in an interdisciplinary team. The division is highly international and thus fluency in English is a requirement. In addition, it would be great if you also had:

  • Experience in next-generation sequencing (NGS) data handling.
  • Experience in advanced modeling and analysis in statistical packages such as R and scripting and/or visualization languages such as Python, C, C++, or Java.
  • Experience in database technologies (such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, No-SQL
  • Strong experience with bioinformatics analysis and pipeline development

Bases of assessment
When assessing applicants, in addition to the skills listed above, motivation for improving the care of children with cancer is important and a scientific ambition is meriting.

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

  1. Curriculum vitae including qualifications and, if applicable, description of planned research. As a guideline for CV formatting, Karolinska Institutet’s qualifications portfolio (http://ki.se/qualificationsportfolio) might be used, however, this is not a requirement. 
  2. A personal letter explaining the interest in the position
  3. Contact details of two references

The application is to be submitted in Varbi recruitment system.

At Karolinska Institutet a 6-month trial period is required for all permanent appointments.

Type of employment Permanent position
Contract type Full time
First day of employment According to agreement
Salary Monthly salary
City Solna
County Stockholms län
Country Sweden
Reference number 2-2878/2019
Contact
  • Désirée Gavhed, 08-524 832 04
Union representative
  • Bodil Moberg, OFR, bodil.moberg@ki.se
  • Henry Wölling, SEKO, 08-524 840 80
  • John Inge Johnsen , SACO, john.inge.johnsen@ki.se
Published 13.May.2019
Last application date 09.Jun.2019 11:59 PM CEST

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