Postdoctoral Researcher in Ai Approches For Omics-Driven Biomarker Discovery – The research group led by Assistant Prof. Vittorio Fortino, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio
6.9.2020https://rekry.saima.fi/certiahome/open_job_view.html?did=5600&jc=17&id=00009584&lang=en
The University of Eastern Finland, UEF, is one of the largest multidisciplinary universities in Finland. We offer education in nearly one hundred major subjects, and are home to approximately 15,500 students and 2,700 members of staff. We operate in Joensuu and Kuopio. In international rankings, we are ranked among the leading universities in the world.
The Faculty of Health Sciences operates at the Kuopio Campus of the University of Eastern Finland. The Faculty offers education in medicine, dentistry, nutrition and pharmacy, as well as in some other central fields of the health care sector. The Faculty is research-intensive, and its internationally recognised research activities are closely linked to the strategic research areas of the University. There are approximately 2 500 degree students and about 450 PhD students in the Faculty. The faculty has 680 staff members. http://www.uef.fi/en/ttdk/etusivu
We are now inviting applications for
a Postdoctoral Researcher in Ai Approches For Omics-Driven Biomarker Discovery, School of Medicine, Institute of Biomedicine (Kuopio campus)
A Postdoctoral Researcher position is available in the research group led by Assistant Prof. Vittorio Fortino in the Institute of Biomedicine, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences (UEF) in Kuopio. The group focuses on developing and applying advanced computational approaches to tackle biomedical questions such as biomarker and drug discovery. Applicants with background in bioinformatics analysis of omics data and machine learning are encouraged to apply. More information on the research and the group is found at https://www3.uef.fi/en/web/biomedicine/vittorio-fortino-group
The research position is filled into the Academy of Finland research project (No 332510) which aims to use Artificial Intelligence methods to efficiently mine big biomedical data and quickly assess multivariate biomarker hypotheses formulated from multiple biomedical data sources, including biological knowledge networks, larger-scale genomics and clinical data. The post-doc employed will address two major unsolved problems in precision medicine: (i) the integration of biological knowledge, clinical and multi-omics data in a systems biology framework to characterize disease-relevant mechanisms and (ii) a multi-parameter optimization strategy to identify multivariate biomarkers panel based on their predictive performance, functional relevance and clinical utility. These AI-driven technologies will be used to discover highly predictive biomarkers of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and Alzheimer disease (AD).
The post-doc employed will have a central role in developing and applying approaches for the processing and analysis of omics data as well as machine learning within this project.
A person to be appointed as a postdoctoral researcher shall hold a suitable doctoral degree. Positions of postdoctoral researchers shall always be filled for a fixed term (UEF University Regulations, Section 31).
The person to be appointed to the Postdoctoral Researcher Position is required to hold a doctoral degree, which may not have been completed more than five years ago at the time of accepting the position. In this context, the 5 years refer to a net period of time, which does not include maternity leaves, parental leaves, or military service, etc.
Qualifications and personal qualities:
- Applicants must hold a PhD or an equivalent degree within a relevant field, e.g. bioinformatics or informatics, or must have submitted his/her doctoral thesis for assessment prior to the application deadline. It is a condition of employment that the PhD has been awarded.
- Solid theoretical knowledge and practical experience in bioinformatics is a requirement.
- Experience from analysis of omics data (including RNA-seq, Microarray, GWAS, and ChIP-seq data) is a requirement.
- Experience from analysis of biological knowledge network and pathway enrichment analysis is a requirement.
- Experience programming in a relevant programming language (e.g., R and Python) is a requirement.
- Practical experience working with machine learning methods is an advantage.
- Practical experience working with large-scale genomics datasets (e.g. TCGA, CCLE, etc.) is an advantage.
- Practical experience working with the ENCODE database is an advantage.
- Applicants must be able to work independently and in a team.
- Applicants must have good skills in oral and written English.
- Research experience, ambitions and potential will also count when evaluating the candidates.
The successful applicant is expected to apply for external fellowships, present data at scientific conferences, and prepare manuscripts for publication. Candidates with a publication record in computational biology and bioinformatics are preferred.
The position is filled for a fixed term for two years (starting from 1.10.2020 to 30.9.2022 or later by agreement). The position is filled for a fixed term due to project work (funded by Academy of Finland).
The salary of the position is determined in accordance with the salary system of Finnish universities and is based on level 5 of the job requirement level chart for teaching and research staff (€2,967.84/ month). In addition to the job requirement component, the salary includes a personal performance component, which may be a maximum of 50 % of the job requirement component.
For further information on the position, please contact: Assistant Professor Vittorio Fortino,+358 29 445 4197, vittorio.fortino@uef.fi. For further information on the application procedure, please contact: saima-asiattt@uef.fi
A probationary period is applied to all new members of the staff.
The electronic application should contain the following appendices:
– a résumé or CV
– a list of publications
– a motivation letter
– copies of the applicant’s academic degree certificates/ diplomas, and copies of certificates / diplomas relating to the applicant’s language proficiency, if not indicated in the academic degree certificates/diplomas
– contact information of two references, and possible reference letters
The application needs to be submitted no later than September 9, 2020 (by 24.00 hours Finnish time) by using the electronic application form.