Postdoctoral Researcher in Liver Epidemiology

Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research?

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 gastrointestinal, psychiatric, and cancer epidemiology, as well as 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: http://ki.se/en/meb 

The gastrointestinal epidemiology group at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (MEB) is now looking for a postdoc who wants to understand and prevent liver disease with a focus on alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency, MASLD and PSC. Our research group consists of epidemiologists, clinicians, and database administrators and provides a vibrant and stimulating working atmosphere. The research group has members from Sweden, Switzerland, China, and the US.

Sweden is renowned for its world-class nationwide health registers. Based on these registers, Swedish researchers have produced outstanding papers and advanced our understanding in fields such as liver disease, coeliac disease, oesophageal disease, IBD, microscopic colitis but also colorectal cancer. Through linkage with the personal identity number, it is possible to combine information from national healthcare registers. However, a limitation of these registers is the absence of histopathology data (which we have!). Through a nationwide collection of computerised biopsy report data from all Swedish 28 pathology departments, we have created a database of 2.6 million individuals (with 8.3 million biopsy reports) who have undergone a biopsy of the gastrointestinal tract (intestine/liver/pancreas/gall bladder). The cohort is known under its acronym ESPRESSO (Epidemiology Strengthened by histoPathology Reports in Sweden).

A description of the cohort can be found here: https://www.dovepress.com/cohort-update-espresso-epidemiology-strengthened-by-histopathology-rep-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-CLEP

Your mission

Your main responsibilities will be to perform research in liver epidemiology  (especially alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency but potentially also PSC and MASLD), exploring risk factors and prognosis of diseases where histopathology is essential. The position requires a high level of statistical/mathematical competence, and to absorb necessary knowledge on liver disease aetiology, epidemiology and register-based research.

For examples of our research, please see: https://ki.se/en/research/research-areas-centres-and-networks/research-groups/gastrointestinal-epidemiology-jonas-ludvigssons-research-group#tab-espresso

At our department, you will have vast opportunities to engage and participate in various research forums, outside as well as inside the department. MEB is an inclusive workplace, encouraging collaborative departmental and interdisciplinary research, and we have an infrastructure to support our approach.

The appointment will be for 2 years, with a possible extension after evaluation.

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. 

Applicants should:

• Have documented research experience after the defense of the PhD thesis
• Applicants should have a PhD degree in epidemiology, biostatistics or equivalent
• Skills in R, SAS, STATA, SPSS or equivalent statistical software
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English are required, along with experience in writing and publishing research articles in English.

The applicant should be highly collegial skilled in team-work but also have the ability to work independently. Further, the applicant should possess organizational skills, know how to successfully multitask, and should be able to describe past examples of having solved unanticipated and complex research problems. Experience in register-based research, preferably in gastroenterology/hepatology and experience of working with linked routinely collected healthcare data is meriting. 

The applicant should have excellent analytical skills and have capacity to take responsibility for specific research projects. Further, the applicant should have the skill set to be involved in supervision of PhD students, including the necessary communicational skills. It is a merit to be an MD.

What do we offer?

International staff  

KI Postdoc Association  

Choose to work at KI – Ten reasons why  

Our research group aims to have weekly supervision meetings to help you develop as a researcher. The department offers a wide range of courses and seminars on a weekly basis. The atmosphere is very international. Your supervisor Ludvigsson is one of KI’s most merited researchers, and currently the Scientific secretary of the Swedish Society of Medicine.

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

https://ki.se/en/research/research-areas-centres-and-networks/research-groups/gastrointestinal-epidemiology-jonas-ludvigssons-research-group#tab-espresso

Application

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

• A complete curriculum vitae, including date of the thesis defence, title of the thesis, previous academic positions, academic title, current position, academic distinctions, and committee work.
• PhD certificate
• A personal letter (no more than a page)
• A complete list of publications (with number of citations and impact factor). 
• A summary of current work (no more than one page)
• As part of your application we invite you submit your solution to a statistical problem.

  Download the instructions for the statistical task from the below GitHub folder. Please name the document with your solution: ”celiac” and submit with all other requested documents. Do not upload any documents to the GitHub folder.

  You will find the statistical files needed and further instructions for this exercise here: https://github.com/bjoroeKI/Celiac

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. Jonas F Ludvigsson, [email protected]

1. Bodil Moberg, ST/OFR, [email protected]
2. Ann Almqvist, SACO, [email protected]
3. Robert Lindberg, SEKO, [email protected]