Are you the talented and motivated PhD candidate who will help us to develop novel molecular diagnostics to accurately and efficiently identify the most vulnerable amongst our elderly? Then please read on!

Why is it that some persons remain healthy up to the highest ages whereas others require treatment for diseases like cardiovascular disease or type II diabetes from middle age onward? Within molecular epidemiology, we study the molecular changes that occur with ageing with the aim of identifying holistic indicators of declining health. You will work on large molecular data resources and will develop methods for the identification of patients at-risk of age-related disease. In addition, you will disseminate your work by writing scientific manuscripts and presenting your research at international conferences. The combination of this work will get you a PhD title.

You hold a MSC degree in Bioinformatics, Statistics, Life Sciences or a similar field. Experience of techniques derived from data sciences, including cluster analysis, dimensionality reduction and predictive models are required. You must be familiar with a scripting language such as R or Python and with basic epidemiological concepts. Knowledge of genetic associations studies, heritability analyses and transcriptomic studies are favoured but not required. You enjoy gaining, combining and translating knowledge from multiple fields and have an optimistic and kind nature.

Fixed-term contract: four years.

You work in an employment contract of 36 hours per week. Your placement should lead to a PhD thesis and is for a maximum duration of four years. Your salary is € 2,336 gross per month in the first year, progressing to a maximum of € 2,992 gross per month in the fourth year, based on a full time position (scale PhD students of the Collective Labor Agreement for University Hospitals).

LUMC

At the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), we are continually seeking to improve the quality of healthcare. The LUMC aims for excellence in patient care, research, teaching, training and continuing education.

http://www.lumc.nl/

Biomedical Data Sciences

The department of Biomedical Data Sciences including the section of Molecular Epidemiology holds an excellent track record on medical and macular statistics. In addition, you will be embedded at the Leiden Computational Biology Center, a group of scientists who aim to apply the state-of-the-art techniques from data science in the medical and biological domain.