Position-SysX2014

Postdoctoral position in Statistical Genetics

The project: We have recently embarked on a cross-species, systems genetics research to unravel key mechanisms of the genetic regulation of aging and longevity. This research is in close collaboration with Bart Deplancke, Johan Auwerx (EPFL) and Marc Robinson-Rechavi (UNIL).

Prerequisites: We are interested in recruiting a talented individual with strong background in statistics / mathematics / bioinformatics / physics / programming. The ideal candidate should have

  • solid background in statistics (PhD or equivalent experience)
  • good programming skills (R or Matlab languages preferred, C++ is a plus)
  • past experience with solving biological problems (especially experience with gene expression analysis, cross-species comparison, genome-wide association studies, aging/longevity) with computational tools is an advantage
  • good communication skills and excellent command of English

Tasks: The candidate will be responsible for

  • developing novel methodologies to exploit cross-species genetic data (RNA-seq and genotyping chips)
  • translating findings in animal models to human
  • leading/co-ordinating international meta-analysis efforts
  • supervising (PhD/Master) students in the lab
  • optionally participating in teaching

Employment rate: 75-100%, for initially 1 year (extendable to 4 years)

Background: The Statistical Genetics Group of the Statistics Unit at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (IUMSP) is developing methods tailored to address specific aspects of genetic association studies. We are interested in studying various aspects of the missing heritability phenomenon, gene-environment interactions, molecular phenotype integration, phenotype evolution over time, allelic heterogeneity, copy-number variant associations, etc. Via longstanding collaborations we are fortunate to have access to several large cohorts with genome-wide genotyping and exome sequencing data sets with rich sets of clinical phenotypes. We have an extensive web of collaborations both in Switzerland (University Hospital (CHUV), Center for Integrative Genomics (CIG, UNIL), EPFL, Vital-IT) through the rich network of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and abroad (Imperial College London, University of Regensburg, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, University of Milan, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, etc.).

Starting date: June 2014

Contact: Zoltán Kutalik