Postdoctoral Fellow: Gene networks in substance use and substance use disorders

This vacancy for a talented Postdoctoral Fellow is available at the Interdisciplinary Center Psychopathology and Emotion regulation (ICPE) of the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG). The ICPE performs high-quality research on common mental disorders at the crossroads of various disciplines, and offers attractive career perspectives for motivated, gifted Postdoctoral Fellows who are driven by curiosity and have a strong interest in multidisciplinary research.

The ICPE is part of the University Center of Psychiatry (UCP) of the UMCG. The UCP offers state of the art and innovative treatments to psychiatric patients, and has competitive research programs. The UCP includes about 450 employees who work in psychiatric health care, research, or both. The UCP offers excellent training for psychiatrists, psychologists, and other disciplines.

The project
Substance use and substance use disorders are complex traits caused by multiple interacting genetic and environmental risk factors. The exact mechanisms of these traits including molecular pathways are still unknown. This project investigates the cascade of molecular effects between SNPs and substance use and substance use disorders while disentangling the genetic effects on parental and home environments. In our multidisciplinary and international team, we have a position (4 year, 0.8-1.0 fte) available for a Postdoctoral Fellow with a strong background in behavioral genetics, statistical genetics or biostatistics. This multidisciplinary project combines knowledge and methods from molecular genetics, molecular biology, and psychiatry to investigate causal mechanisms of substance use and substance use disorders.

This project is for a motivated candidate holding a PhD degree in behavioral genetics, statistical genetics, or biostatistics with:
- Expertise in human genetics demonstrated by multiple scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals.
- The candidate is familiar and will apply state-of-the-art statistical and bioinformatic analyses including, but not limited to, GWAS and polygenic risk scores and is following the development of new computational methods.
- The candidate has experience working with high dimensional data in different programming languages such as R and Python on a high-performance cluster.
- Capacity to program and document in a Linux computing environment.
- Good communicative and organizational skills.
- The candidate appreciates the challenge to investigate the genetic architecture of psychiatric and functional disorders, including the interplay of genes and environment.
- Excellent ability to express himself or herself in oral and written English.
- Capacities as a team player who can also work independently and has perseverance.

The UMCG has a preventive Hepatitis B policy. The UMCG can provide you with the vaccination, should it be required for your position.

In case of specific professions a ‘Certificate of Good Conduct’ is required.

We offer Postdoctoral position for a period of four years (32 - 36 hours a week). The appointment will be at the Department of Psychiatry of University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG). This project is a collaboration with Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Texas A&M University, and the University of Edinburgh and funding is available for short-term research visits to the other institutes.

Your salary will be a maximum of € 4.615,- gross per month (scale 10), depending on your qualifications and relevant experience, based on a full-time appointment. In addition, the UMCG will offer you 8% holiday pay, and 8.3% end-of-year bonus. The conditions of employment comply with the Collective Labour Agreement for Medical Centres (CAO-UMC).

- The candidate performs research on this project, a.o. by performing complex genetic analyses.
- The candidate reports his or her results in high quality scientific journals.
- The candidate works in an enthusiastic multidisciplinary research team including experts from relevant different backgrounds (e.g. genetics, psychiatry, molecular biology).
- The candidate will co-supervise predoctoral and doctoral students.