MSCA-PF: Joint application at the University of Granada. Department of Biostatistics Unit (Dpt.[...]

euraxess.ec.europa.eu - Jobboard; España; Presencial; EUR 30.000 - 40.000; Jornada completa

Descripción de la vacante

The University of Granada invites applications for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship in its Biostatistics Unit. Candidates will undertake innovative research focusing on computational and statistical methods for biomedical data analysis, contributing to advancing understanding of complex diseases and their treatment.

Formación

• Postdoctoral candidates must hold a PhD in a relevant field.
• Experience in statistical analysis and computational methods is preferred.
• Proficiency in bioinformatics tools and machine learning techniques is highly valuable.

Responsabilidades

• Develop innovative computational techniques for data analysis.
• Create algorithms for omic signatures and prediction models.
• Develop open-source applications for the scientific community.

Conocimientos

Statistical analysis

Computational methods

Bioinformatics

Machine learning

Educación

PhD in relevant field

Herramientas

Open-source software development

Descripción del empleo

Biostatistics Unit (Dpt. Statistics and OR)

Organisation / Company University of Granada Department International Research Projects Office Laboratory Biostatistics Unit (Dpt. Statistics and OR) Is the Hosting related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Professor Pedro Carmona Sáez, from the Department ofBiostatistics Unit (Dpt. Statistics and OR) at the University of Granada, welcomes postdoctoral candidatesinterested inapplying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF)in 2025 at this University. Please note that applicants must comply with the Mobility Rule (for more information about the 2025 call, please consult this link .

Brief description of the institution:

The University of Granada (UGR), founded in 1531, is one of the largest and most important universities in Spain. With amost 54,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and more than 6,000 members of staff, the UGR offers over 90 undergraduate degrees, 157 master’s degrees (7 of which are international double degrees) and 28 doctoral programmes via its 124 departments and nearly 50 centers. Accordingly, the UGR offers one of the most extensive and diverse ranges of higher education programmes in Spain.

The UGR has been awarded with the "Human Resources Excellence in Research (HRS4R)", which reflects the institution’s commitment to continuously improve its human resource policies in line with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The UGR is also internationally renowned for its excellence in diverse research fields and ranked among the top Spanish universities in a variety of ranking criteria, such as national R&D projects, fellowships awarded, publications, and international funding.

The UGR is one of the few Spanish Universities listed in the Shanghai Top 500 ranking - Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). The 2024 edition of the ARWU places the UGR in 301-400th position in the world and as the 3-8 highest ranked University in Spain ( http://sl.ugr.es/0dwJ ) , reaffirming its position as an institution at the forefront of national and international research. From the perspective of specialist areas in the ARWU rankings ( http://sl.ugr.es/0bSp ) , the UGR is outstanding in Mathematics and Dentistry & Oral Sciences Food Science & Technology (both ranked between 51th-75th position), Computer Science & Engineering, Food Science & Technology and Hospitality & Tourism Management (all three ranked between 76-100th position), and in the areas of Statistics and Psychology (both ranked between 101-150th position). A little lower in the ranking, the UGR also stands out in the areas of Business Administration and Earth Sciences, in which the UGR is positioned in the 151-200th position.

Additionally, the UGR counts with 3 researchers at the top of the Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) list ( http://sl.ugr.es/0cmD ), most of them related to the Computer Science scientific area. It is also well recognised for its presence in the top 200 Universities in Europe ( http://sl.ugr.es/0a6i ) at 43th place .

Internationally, the University of Granada is firmly committed to its participation in the calls of the Framework Programme of the European Union. For the duration of the prevoius Framework Programme, Horizon 2020, the UGR obtained a totalof123 projectswith a total funding of around€30 million.For the current Framework Programme, Horizon Europe, the UGR has obtained108 projects, so far, with a total funding of€33 million.

Brief description of the Centre/Research Group:

The Bioinformatics and Health Data Science Group (https://compbio.ugr.es/ ) is dedicated to the development and application of innovative computational and statistical methods for the integration and analysis of multi-omics and biomedical data, with the aim of better understanding the molecular mechanisms of complex diseases and advancing their diagnosis and treatment. Specifically, we are interested in developing applications and methodologies in different contexts:

Methods for the integrated analysis of multi-omic data

The growth of omics techniques has led to an explosion in the availability of data in public repositories. With appropriate methodologies, these data are an invaluable source for generating new knowledge, hypotheses, and predictive models. In our group, we have developed new methods and software based on meta-analysis and data integration techniques, applied to biomarker discovery and the analysis of functional annotations, among other fields.

Development of computational techniques to establish molecular signatures and prediction models for drug response and patient classification

We are creating algorithms to establish omic signatures that define new classification models and guide the prediction of treatment responses or disease prognosis, also integrating information from electronic health records. In this context, we have various collaborations with other expert groups in different pathologies, such as autoimmune diseases and cancer.

Development of software and bioinformatics analysis tools

One of our objectives is also to develop open-source applications that make our methodologies available to the scientific community. These applications are widely used to analyze biomedical data. The list of developed software is available at https://compbio.ugr.es/tools/ .

The research line we develop focuses on the creation and implementation of advanced computational techniques for data analysis and software development aimed at the integration and analysis of -omics data, medical images, and clinical data. Our main objective is to design innovative methodologies that enable effective and robust integration of these heterogeneous data, contributing to the advancement of biomedical knowledge.

In particular, our current focus is on the development of machine learning models for the accurate prediction of cellular states and phenotypes using multi-omics data. Recently, we have developed a deep learning model capable of predicting cellular phenotypes from single-cell transcriptome data. This advancement represents a significant step toward understanding the complex relationships between different types of biological and clinical data, facilitating the discovery of new knowledge.

The project's goal is to continue advancing these techniques, exploring the expansion of these methods for the integration of heterogeneous data. In this context, we also aim to explore the adaptation of foundational models to improve phenotype prediction at the cellular level, identify relevant biomarkers, and model in silico perturbations. This includes the development of new network architectures, algorithm optimization, and the application of interpretation techniques to ensure transparency and confidence in the generated predictions.

Research Area:

• Information Science and Engineering (ENG)
• Life Sciences (LIFE)

For a correct evaluation of your candidature, please send the documents below to Professor Pedro Carmona Sáez ( [e-mail] ):