Postdoctoral researcher in vascular cognitive impairment and dementia

Postdoctoral Researcher In Vascular Cognitive Impairment And Dementia

Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research?

The successful candidate will join and work closely with Assistant Professor Anna Marseglia's team within the Westman neuroimaging group at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics, NVS Department—a multidisciplinary, internationally recognized, collaborative research environment focuses on prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment of cognitive disorders.

You will work within a team spanning geriatrics, epidemiology, neuroscience, psychology, engineering, and statistics, where independent work is balanced with strong collaboration both within and beyond the research group, and own innovative ideas are strongly encouraged.

The Division of Clinical Geriatrics at the NVS Department conducts clinically oriented research on Alzheimer's disease related disorders and other aging-related conditions in close cooperation with worldwide leading institutions and with the Theme Aging at Karolinska University Hospital.

Dr Marseglia's research focuses on vascular contributions to cognitive disorders and resilience, integrating multimodal data—including neuroimaging, clinical, lifestyle, socio-behavioral, and proteomic measures—alongside AI-derived brain age as a proxy of brain health and cognitive resilience. This project contributes to uncover the molecular mechanisms driving vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID), resilience, and the potential crosstalk between them.

Your Mission

You will initiate and lead independent studies aimed at identifying molecular fingerprints that may promote vulnerability to VCID or protect against VCID progression, and how these signatures relate with clinical, cognitive, lifestyle, and genetic features. You will primarily work with large-scale, multimodal longitudinal cohorts, including the population-based Gothenburg H70 Birth Cohort studies and UK Biobank. We will apply for access to additional cohorts integrating proteomic data with clinical, cognitive, neuroimaging, and genetic variables. The postdoc is expected to play an active role in this process. You will collaborate with experts in VCID and resilience research and contribute to the development of innovative, interdisciplinary and data-driven research approaches. This position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge research at the intersection of vascular brain health, resilience, and precision medicine in ageing.

Duties

In this position, you will take on a broad and responsible role covering the full research process, from idea generation to publication. This includes data management and curation, data extraction, study design, statistical analyses, interpretation, and dissemination. You will play a key role in developing and leading the proteomics components of the project, working at the interface of molecular data, neuroimaging, and cognitive outcomes. Your responsibilities will include:

• Develop and refine research questions, conduct literature reviews, and manage and process data with a particular focus on proteomic data.
• Leading the analysis and integration of proteomic data—including quality control, normalization, and identification of molecular signatures—with neuroimaging, clinical, and health behaviors data.
• Apply advanced analytical approaches such as clustering/dimensionality reduction methods, supervised and unsupervised machine learning, and longitudinal statistical models to link molecular profiles to VCID.
• Interpret results and prepare manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals; writing lay summaries for broader audiences is optional but encouraged.
• Present research findings at seminars, conferences, and other professional forums.
• Participate in regular meetings and engage in collaborations.
• Contribute to the development of new analytical pipelines and strategies for multi-omics integration within the group.

  You are expected to initiate and lead your own research projects. The role may also involve supervising students, contributing to teaching activities, and grant writing.

  This postdoctoral position is a full-time (100%) position for two years.

  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.

  To be considered for this position, you should also meet the following criteria:

  • PhD in clinical neuroscience, biostatistics, or related field with a focus on neuroimaging and proteomics in aging
  • Solid publication record, including first-author research publications in peer-reviewed international journals.
  • Demonstrated hands-on experience with proteomics data, including preprocessing, normalization, and downstream analyses (e.g., clustering, pathway analysis, biomarker discovery)
  • Practical experience applying machine learning to high-dimensional biological data
  • Practical experience in longitudinal data analysis
  • Applied research in neurodegeneration, cerebrovascular disease, and cognitive impairment/dementia.
  • Training in epidemiology-related research methods within dementia research.
  • Experience working with large-scale datasets.
  • Strong programming skills in R or other relevant software.
  • Excellent written and spoken English communication skills.
  • Ability to work well both independently and collaboratively within an international multidisciplinary team.

    You are ambitious, enthusiast, curious to learn new methods/skills/concepts, self-driven, detailed and goal-oriented, committed to high-quality work, with strong social and collaborative skills.

    It is also considered a merit if you have one or more of the following:

    • Experience integrating omics data with clinical or neuroimaging data, preferably SVD markers
    • Experiences with UK Biobank data and their Research Analysis Platform.
    • Interest in translational research and biomarker development
    • A strong interest in translational research, biomarker development, and machine learning applications in biomedical research and its integration with epidemiological methods in aging.

      We are looking for a social person who enjoys collaborating. This is very important as the applicant will be working in a group. Emphasis will be placed on personal suitability.

      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.

      The successful candidate will have excellent opportunities for professional development through mentorship, networking, and scientific output

      Location: Neo (Blickagången 16), KI Campus Flemingsberg