Postdoctoral Researcher, Generative AI for Personalised Medicine

The University of Eastern Finland is inviting applications for two Postdoctoral Researcher positions in the field of Generative AI for Personalised Medicine. The positions are hosted by the School of Medicine at the Faculty of Health Sciences and located on the Kuopio Campus. The positions will be filled for a 2-year term from 1 January 2025 onwards (or as agreed) in the research teams led by Prof. Merja Heinäniemi and Prof. Sui Huang. Please find more information below and submit your application by 22 November 2024.

Role and salary 

We are looking for enthusiastic, broadly knowledgeable Postdoctoral Researchers in computational sciences who are familiar with AI (deep learning, large language models) and biomedical/clinical data sciences to drive a project to establish the framework for a new approach in deep phenotyping and personalised medicine.

As our new Postdoctoral Researcher in Knowledge Graphs and Personalised Medicine, your research focus will be on building the next platform for integrating big data with the vast knowledge of biomedical facts and multi-omics data for a new kind of personalised medicine.

As our new Postdoctoral Researcher in Tissue dynamics and Personalised Medicine, your research focus will be on developing multi-omics models for predictive medicine.

You will have the opportunity to collaborate with a wide-reaching international and interdisciplinary team of leading bio-computational scientists and clinicians.

Your main responsibilities will include:  

• planning and conducting studies related to generative AI applications,
• reporting and creating high-quality scientific publications,
• participating in the preparation of research proposals in your field.  

Other responsibilities include the co-supervision of PhD students. The researchers can take part in undergraduate teaching in their expert area.  

The positions will be filled for a 2-year term from 1 January 2025 onwards (or as agreed). The positions will be filled for a fixed term due to them pertaining to method development in a specific project. A probationary period is applied to all new members of the staff.
 
Our requirements and expectations 

We are looking for a researcher who is initiative and self-driven; imaginative and quick in adopting new paradigms; an outside-the-box thinker, yet rigorous in their scientific work.

Requirements 

•   A doctoral degree in a field relevant to the proposed project
  • The doctoral degree may not have been completed more than five years ago at the time of accepting the position (a net period of time, which does not include parental leaves, military service etc.)  
• Excellent/good skills in oral and written English. English is used as the language of instruction and supervision in this position.   

Expectations 

•  A formal background in computer science or related fields   
•  Practical experience with AI (e.g., LLMs) in biomedical context
•  A strong research record 

Advantages 

• A solid knowledge of bioinformatics and public bioinformatics databases (NCBI, Uniprot, Ensemble, etc)
• Knowledge of laboratory medicine (clinical lab measurements, plasma proteomics, single cell genomics)
• Experience in international research cooperation

Postdoctoral Researcher in Knowledge Graphs and Personalised Medicine:

• familiarity with the basic graph theory and graph databases, notably Neo4J and Cypher
• familiarity with biomedical ontologies

Postdoctoral Researcher in Tissue dynamics and Personalised Medicine:

• familiarity with Bayesian methods for time-series modelling
• familiarity with single cell genomics data analysis and data repositories

Your benefits 

• You will have access to the university’s staff benefits, including 
• opportunity for flexible multi-location work
• extensive occupational health care  
• broad selection of staff training
• staff discount on lunch in our campus restaurants, as well as on a range of other services 
• affordable sports services and tax-free bike benefit 

Please read more in the Work at UEF section on our website.  

You will have an opportunity to work in an interesting/meaningful/diverse role as part of our international, creative, participatory and inclusive academic community.    

Enjoy your life in Finland! Known for its cleanliness, welfare know-how, modern technology and superb education system, Finland is an exotic and safe country to work in. Please visit the Life in Finland section on our website to learn more.    

How to apply? 

Submit your application by using our electronic application form no later than 22 November 2024 by 24:00 (midnight) Finnish time (UTC+2)

Please note that you must include the following appendices in your application: 

• CV (Template for CV, www-page)  
• a list of publications (Instructions, www-page
• copies of your academic degree certificates / diplomas, and copies of certificates / diplomas relating to your language proficiency, if not indicated in the academic degree certificates/diplomas 
• motivation letter  

Questions? 

 For further information on the position, please contact Professor Merja Heinäniemi, merja.heinaniemi@uef.fi,  +358 40 3553842 or Professor Sui Huang, sui.huang@uef.fi

For further information on the application procedure, please contact hrbiomed@uef.fi

The Faculty of Health Sciences operates at the Kuopio Campus of the University of Eastern Finland. The Faculty offers education in medicine, dentistry, nutrition and pharmacy, as well as in some other central fields of the health care sector. The Faculty is research-intensive, and its internationally recognised research activities are closely linked to the strategic research areas of the University. There are approximately 3 090 degree students and about 580 PhD students in the Faculty. The faculty has 800 staff members.

The University of Eastern Finland (UEF) is the most multidisciplinary university in Finland. Our university employs approximately 3,200 employees, and our community includes approximately 17,000 degree students and 16,000 adult education students. Our campuses are located in Joensuu and Kuopio. We represent the world’s cutting edge of research in many fields and produce research-based knowledge, which is made openly available to benefit everyone. Learn more about our university at www.uef.fi/en. Read also about UEF as a working community and employer and the career stories of our employees.

1. Merja Heinäniemi, +358403553842