PhD/Postdoc position in applied big data analysis – statistics and AI/machine learning - leveraging large-scale health records with genetics for improved PREDICTION of COURSE AND OUTCOME for MENTAL DISORDERS

PhD/Postdoc position with focus on analyses of large-scale complex multimodal data to advance PREDICTION, COURSE AND OUTCOME IN PSYCHIATRY striving toward clinical impact of the findings.

We are looking for a highly motivated data scientist starting on May 1, 2025, or soon thereafter.


About collaborators in the project
The project will be effectuated in close collaboration between The Copenhagen Research Centre for Biological and Precision Psychiatry (place of employment), led by Prof. Michael E. Benros, the Pioneer Centre for SMARTbiomed, led by Naomi Wray, Prof. at University of Oxford, and the National Center for Register-based Research, Prof. Preben Bo Mortensen and Prof. Bjarni Jóhann Vilhjálmsson, University of Aarhus, in addition to Prof. Simon Rasmussen, NNF Metabolism Center, University of Copenhagen.


About the project
The project is based on the world famous Danish nationwide registers and biobanks that made the iPSYCH project possible. The PhD/Postdoc project is an integrated part of the Pioneer Centre for SMARTbiomed collaboration leveraging large-scale multimodal biomedical data combined with focused innovation in statistical and computational methods, including machine learning, to advance our understanding, treatment, and prevention of human disease. This project focuses on PREDICTION, COURSE AND OUTCOME in PSYCHIATRY leveraging the large-scale genetic cohort (iPSYCH) in addition to nationwide registers with electronic health data.

This project aims to develop integrative psychiatric risk models that leverages multi-modal information, evaluate prediction models, and estimate absolute population risks in the population at large. The project will explore on risk and prediction for adverse outcomes in relatives to mental health patients, at prediction and courses of psychiatric diseases for implementation in everyday work in a clinical context, and estimated prognosis to explore on preventive clinical approaches and treatment options, estimate absolute disease risk, prognostic accuracies and risk of comorbidities.

All previous attempts towards more precision psychiatry have not been suited for implementation in clinical practice so far. Therefore, the field of psychiatry still has many unknowns, remaining as a challenge to which, we believe this project will greatly contribute. This will pave the way to actual clinical implementation that would enable the advancement of precision psychiatry to the next level. When successful, the developed models will be tested clinically in our clinical test center for data-driven treatments as part of the EpiPsych project.


About the Copenhagen Research Centre for Biological and Precision Psychiatry
The Copenhagen Research Center for Biological and Precision Psychiatry is a leading Danish research center within the field of psychiatry with a remarkable research output and an extensive international network. Our main research focus is on Biological and Precision Psychiatry, including prediction and prevention as well as improvement of symptoms and quality of life for people with severe mental disorders. The research center is currently innovating in the psychiatric field with quantitative approaches applying statistics and AI/machine learning to large-scale medical and biological data. Thanks to the exceptional quality of nationwide Danish registers and population-based electronic health records, we are becoming a key reference worldwide.

Our researchers share a common purpose as they seek to understand the mechanisms involved in mental disorder, identify objective markers relevant for mental disorders, and to accelerate the understanding of mental disorders towards new prediction, prevention and novel treatment strategies – with a high focus towards improving the current treatments of mental disorders.

We offer an inspiring and informal research environment at a high international level with colleagues from different educational backgrounds, such as bioinformaticians, statisticians, doctors, geneticists, project nurses, etc. The Research Director and PI for the project is Professor Michael E. Benros, chief physician, PhD, and director of the Copenhagen Research Centre for Biological and Precision Psychiatry, at the Mental Health Center Copenhagen, Copenhagen University Hospital and at the University of Copenhagen. Among other topics, the group has strong experience and on-going research on Big Data from the nationwide Danish registers and biobanks in addition to detailed clinical studies with multimodal data as wearables and multi-omics that we believe will be beneficial for the projects in both directions.

As a working culture, we are ambitious and result oriented, with an applied mindset to develop new knowledge and tools improving clinical psychiatry, while also like enjoying some time together by organizing different types of social activities from time to time both at the research center and outside. You will be part of an internationally leading cross-disciplinary team working towards data-driven improvements of the current treatment of mental disorders.


About the position
The offered position is a 1-year position to a start with the possibility to prolong it to a 3-year PhD or Postdoc position in total at the Copenhagen Research Centre for Biological and Precision Psychiatry. The candidate will combine a strong level of technical knowledge within AI, data management and data analysis, as well as scientific interest in the clinical implementation. The candidate will focus on applied research with primarily application of existing statistical, AI/machine and deep learning methods to large-scale data sources.

The position fall within a collaborative multi-disciplinary project that involves computer scientists, bioinformaticians, medical doctors and statisticians. It is thus required for the applicants to have a strong interest in working and communicating with clinical researchers and researchers with other backgrounds along the project. Your day-to-day tasks will involve both independent work and active discussions with your colleagues.

We expect the candidate to strive toward scientific excellence within applied science and with clinical utility/implementation as the success goal.

Start Date: As soon as possible from May 1, 2025


About you

Requirements

● A master’s degree or Ph.D. degree in Statistics, Bioinformatics, Computer Science, or related fields

● Strong knowledge in AI/machine learning, deep learning and statistics

● Experience with big data management and data processing techniques (mainly Python)

● Proven research expertise in data preparation and visualization and model deployment

● Scientific interest for the understanding and explainability of AI model predictions, to ensure a clinical implementation by providing a funded trust in the results to clinicians

● Strong communication and collaboration skills within a dynamic multi-disciplinary workspace

● A profound interest in our vision of improving the current treatments of mental disorders and solving the real-world problems through statistical and machine learning



Preferred qualifications

● Previous experience with Azure ML or cloud computing systems

● Hands on experience in implementing end-to-end machine learning projects

● Acreative problem solver with deep expertise in machine learning, algorithms, and optimization

● An intelligent, organized, hard-working mindset with a focus on advancing the state-of-the-art knowledge within mental disorders, delivering the agreed according to timelines, and with ability to fit into the structure of the new workplace and communications with health professionals

● A desire and ability to solve ambitious problems within mental health care that have a substantial impact for clinical psychiatry



Place of employment
The place of employment is at the Copenhagen Research Centre for Biological and Precision Psychiatry at the Mental Health Centre Copenhagen, Copenhagen University Hospital, located at Gentofte Hospital. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in a dynamic, diverse, and international research environment.


Application process
Please submit your application in English or Danish

The application must include the following attachments:

1. Letter of motivation/Cover letter (1 page in length)

2. Your CV (including education, a list of skills/techniques, previous employments, and other relevant skills)

3. Copy of relevant certificates/diplomas (Transcript of MSc or of doctoral studies as well as corresponding degree certificate)

4. List of publications (if available)

5. Contact details of possible referees from 1-2 people. We will contact your referees if required.

All materials should be submitted in PDF format.

Salary, pension, and other conditions of employment are set in accordance with the Agreement between the Ministry of Finance and AC (Danish Confederation of Professional Associations) or other relevant organizations.

Deadline for applications is: 23 of March 2025 at 23.59 CET


Questions / Contact:
For further information about the job description and qualifications, please contact Head of research, Professor Michael Eriksen Benros, [email protected], Direct Phone: +45-26255239, or

Secretary: Signe Clausen [email protected]