PhD candidate Cardiogenetics

We offer an attractive PhD-position for 4 years in an innovative, multidisciplinary environment in the department of Cardiology. You will work as part of the NextGen consortium. Within the consortium, our group studies cardiovascular disease and aims to identify which genes and biological pathways are involved, with a focus on genome-wide association studies (GWAS), polygenic risk scores (PRS) and drug metabolism (pharmacogenetics). You will work with large (array) genotyped, WGS, and WES datasets utilizing data of hundreds of thousands of samples. We have a combination of deep-phenotyped in-house data and large external cohorts, such as “UK Biobank” and “All of Us”.

The UMC Utrecht is a leading international academic medical center where knowledge of health, disease and care is generated, evaluated, shared and applied for the benefit of patients and society. One of the focus areas of research within the UMC Utrecht is Circulatory Health; within this focus area, our research group plays a crucial role in the discovery of genes and biomarkers for cardiovascular disease, with the ultimate aim to improve diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of cardiovascular disease. You will be working in a team consisting of researchers, bioinformaticians, and medical doctors.

You are an ambitious and enthusiastic candidate with a passion for research who is independent and creative. The candidate should either have a master’s degree in biology, biomedical sciences, or a related field and affinity for bioinformatics and statistics, or a degree in epidemiology, statistics, mathematics, bioinformatics, or similar and affinity for biology and genetics. You have good communication skills, and teamwork suits you best. Previous experience in the field of cardiovascular genetics is an advantage. You are confident in mastering software such as PLINK, Python, R, and command-line environments like Bash. You are proficient in English.

• A salary between €3017 and €3824 gross per month (salary scale OIO), based on full-time employment.
• Year-end bonus of 8.3% and holiday allowance of 8%. 
• Pension insurance with ABP. We take care of approximately 70% of the monthly contribution. 
• 100% public transport reimbursement. Are you coming on foot, by bike or by car? You will then receive a reimbursement of € 0.18 per km (by car up to a max. of 40 km one way). 
• Possibilities to develop yourself personally and professionally. 
• The option to select additional employment benefits in exchange for gross salary, such as purchasing a bicycle and memberships.