1-2 Postdoctoral researchers in Psychiatric Genomics and Data Science

Postdoctoral Researchers in Psychiatric Genomics and Data Science

Do you want to contribute to high-quality medical research with the potential to improve our understanding of psychiatric disorders and outcomes?

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.

The KI Psychiatric Genomics Institute (KI-PGI) at MEB is seeking 1-2 postdoctoral researchers, for 1-2 NIH-funded full-time positions.

Led by Principal Researcher Dr. Lu Yi, KI-PGI is a multidisciplinary research group dedicated to understanding the complex interplay between genetic, biological, and environmental factors in psychiatric disorders. The broader research environment focuses on leveraging diverse health data resources together with modern statistical, epidemiological, and data science methods to generate new knowledge about psychiatric disorders and improve opportunities for prevention, early identification, and personalized care. Through the integration of large-scale population data, genomic information, and advanced analytical approaches, KI-PGI aims to elucidate the mechanisms underlying psychiatric disease risk, clinical heterogeneity, and long-term outcomes.

Your Mission

We are recruiting 1-2 full-time postdoctoral researchers (100%) with experience in population-based psychiatric research and large-scale data analysis. The successful candidate will contribute to research projects investigating the development, progression, and outcomes of psychiatric disorders using comprehensive epidemiological, clinical, and genomic data. The candidate will work closely with the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) and the Nordic collaborators.

The candidate will apply advanced analytical approaches, including statistical modelling, machine learning, and/or genetic epidemiological methods, to study disease trajectories, risk factors, treatment patterns, and sources of heterogeneity in psychiatric disorders. The role includes responsibility for data management and analysis, interpretation and dissemination of research findings, manuscript preparation, and presentation of results in scientific and collaborative settings.

The successful candidate will contribute to reproducible, high-quality research aimed at improving understanding of psychiatric illness and identifying factors associated with different clinical outcomes. The position offers opportunities to work within a collaborative research environment combining epidemiology, biostatistics, genomics, and data science.

This is a fixed-term position for two years, with the possibility of extension.

Your Profile

To be eligible for employment as a postdoctoral researcher, 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.

It is required that the applicant has:

• A PhD in epidemiology, public health, biostatistics, data science, genetics, psychiatry, or a related field.
• Experience in population-based research, including the analysis of large-scale longitudinal health data, electronic health records, clinical data, and/or other routinely collected healthcare data.
• Experience applying advanced epidemiological and statistical methods to investigate disease trajectories, risk factors, predictors, clinical outcomes, or treatment patterns in complex disorders.
• Experience applying advanced statistical genetics and genomics methods, such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS), polygenic risk score (PRS) analyses, and family-based study designs.
• Strong programming and data management skills, including proficiency in statistical software such as R, Python, SAS, Stata, or equivalent programming environments, and experience working with large and complex datasets.
• Experience with reproducible research practices, data-driven analytical approaches, and statistical modelling. Experience with machine learning, prediction modelling, causal inference, or the integration of multiple data sources is an advantage.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English, including experience with scientific writing, manuscript preparation, and publishing in peer-reviewed journals.
• Good organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple research tasks independently and to address complex analytical and methodological challenges.

  It is meritorious that the applicant has:

  • Experience working in psychiatric epidemiology, including depression and related outcomes.
  • Experience using Swedish national registers or other large-scale population-based healthcare databases (e.g., UK-Biobank).
  • Experience working with large-scale computing infrastructure, including Linux servers, relational databases (SQL), and shell scripting (e.g. Bash), for data management, processing, and analysis.
  • Experience working with large collaborative research projects involving multidisciplinary teams across epidemiology, biostatistics, clinical medicine, and data science.

    We place great emphasis on personal qualities in this recruitment process.

    What Do We Offer?

    Choose to work at KI – Ten reasons why International staff KI Postdoc Association

    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

    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 complete list of publications
    • A summary of current work (no more than one page)

      KI applies individual and differentiated salary setting in accordance with our collective agreements RALS and RALS-T

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