Postdoctoral Researcher in computational biology

Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research?

The Ratz lab is working at the intersection of systems neuroscience, synthetic biology and spatial transcriptomics. Our goal is to reveal the wiring rules of neuronal network assembly in mammalian brains and to harness such insights for neural network engineering and therapy. The Ratz lab is using and developing cutting-edge approaches including viral barcoding, CRISPR perturbations in vivo, single-cell and spatial transcriptomics and computational methods for data analysis.

Your mission

The project combines basic research in molecular neuroscience with computational and experimental method development. You will create a computational framework to investigate in situ RNA-seq datasets collected from barcoded mouse brains (see: Ratz et al., Nature Neuroscience, 2022; Shi et al., Nature, 2023). Your main role will be to develop the computational methods involved in this data-driven project (e.g. image processing, differential gene expression, clustering) and to employ those methods to identify the wiring rules of mammalian neural circuits. You will work closely with experimental as well as computational scientists inside the lab.

Your profile

To be eligible for employment as a postdoctor a doctoral degree or a foreign degree deemed to be equivalent to a Swedish doctoral degree is required. This eligibility requirement must be fulfilled at the latest at the time of the employment decision. It is considered as an advantage if you have completed your doctoral degree within the last three years, if there are special reasons, your degree may have been completed earlier.

Qualifications:

• Background in bioinformatics, computational biology, computer science, etc. with a PhD in a relevant field.
• Experience in programming using Python (or a similar language) to address biological questions
• Experience in genomic and/or transcriptomic data analysis.
• Interest in brain development, neural circuits and mouse models of brain disorders.
• Fluent written and spoken English

Merit:

• Experience in single-cell and/or spatial transcriptomics.
• Experience in image processing with MATLAB. 

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.

Location: Solna

Ratz lab: https://www.ratzlab.org

Department of Cell and Molecular Biology: https://ki.se/en/cmb/department-of-cell-and-molecular-biology

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Application

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

• 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)

Welcome to apply!

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

Want to make a difference? Join us and contribute to better health for all

1. Michael Ratz, michael.ratz@ki.se

1. Shahla Rostami, OFR, shahla.rostami@ki.se
2. Björn Andersson, SACO, bjorn.andersson@ki.se
3. Elisabeth Valenzuela, SEKO, elisabeth.valenzuela@ki.se