PhD position at Vall d’Hebron Research Institute funded by the TOUCH COFUND project

15 Mar 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR)

Research Field

Biological sciences
Medical sciences » Health sciences
Computer science

Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Country

Spain

Application Deadline

30 Jun 2024 - 23:59 (Europe/Madrid)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

H2020 / Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions COFUND

Marie Curie Grant Agreement Number

101126533

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

Topic: Intergenerational transmission of psychopathology: Effects of parental genotypes.

A PhD position is available at the Psychiatry, Mental Health and Addictions research Group from the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute under the supervision of Marta Ribasés (geneticist)  and María Soler-Artigas (Mathematician). We are looking for a highly motivated candidate that will investigate mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of risk for psychopathology and mental disorders (parental genotypes).

There is evidence supporting that psychopathology is transmitted across generations. Children with parents with high rates of psychopathology are more likely to inherit both psychopathology-associated genetic factors and psychopathology-associated environments. However, it remains challenging to determine whether children resemble their parents due to the effects of genes shared between them (direct genetic transmission or genetic nature), via genetically influenced parenting environments (genetic nurture) or a mixture of both.

Parents transmit genetic risk for psychopathology and mental disorders to their children not only directly (genetic nature), but also indirectly via genetically influenced parents’ phenotype (genetic nurture).

To assess the mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of parent psychopathology to offspring mental health outcomes by exploring the distinction between transmitted and non-transmitted genetic factors from parents to offspring. We will calculate polygenic risk scores (PRS), which aggregate the effects of thousands of genetic variants and provides a quantitative measure of the genetic burden for a particular disease or trait, separately for transmitted and non-transmitted genetic variants for multiple mental disorders (attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia and anxiety, among others) in 1,500 general population family trios and will test their association with behavioral and emotional problems and mental disorders in the offspring.

The impact of the proposal will be substantial in the fields of prevention and intervention. By identifying mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of risk for psychopathology and mental disorders we will provide insights into the role of parents in shaping their children’s outcomes and may identify modifiable parental factors that are likely to be effective targets for intervention

The successful candidate will be enrolled in the Genetics doctoral program at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in the framework of the TOUCH project. TOUCH (“Towards the next generatiOn of excellent yoUng doctoral researchers on mental health by developing an intersectoral & transdisciplinary approaCH”) is a new excellent doctoral programme co-funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) Actions of the European Commission and led by the UAB for the recruitment and training of 24 doctoral candidates in the field of mental health and wellbeing.

Our multidisciplinary Psychiatry, Mental Health and Addictions research Group team has skills and expertise in epidemiology, psychiatry, psychology, genetics, bioinformatics and biostatistics.

Our main objective is to break the stigma associated with mental disorders and to show them as biological conditions by using -omics data and multiple approaches, that include GWAS and omics profiling. Our main contribution to the field has been to identify a) genes involved in mental disorders; b) shared and specific genetic background for comorbid conditions and c) biomarkers for disease, with the final aim to use genetic information to understand the disease mechanism, to predict risk and to improve patients’ classification and diagnostic procedures.

We are looking for candidates with an excellent CV, ahigh degree of ambition and motivation, and with good personal qualities to work in our Team. We offer a 3-year full-time contract (37,5 hours/week) and a gross salary of 2.375 €/month (the salary will be the same for the 3 years).

The candidates must fulfil the following eligibility criteria from the EC: Mobility rule: candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately preceding the deadline for the programme call. Experience rule: researchers must be doctoral candidates at the date of recruitment, i.e. not already in possession of a doctoral degree at the deadline of the open calls. Researchers who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis but have not yet formally awarded the doctoral degree will not be considered eligible. Candidates must hold a degree that allows admission to the official doctoral programme at UAB.

Additional requirements for a stronger application are:

• Education and qualifications:
  • Degree in Biological, Health or Basic sciences (Biology, Genetics, Mathematics, etc).
  • Master’s Degree in Bioinformatics or Biosciences.
• Desired experience in Statistical Genetics, Biostatistics, Computational Biology, Bioinformatics or similar field and programming skills (particularly R, Unix/ Linux).
• Responsibilities will include genetic association analyses of clinical features across mental disorders, application of the novel methods described, manuscript writing, and oral presentations at lab meetings, consortium calls, and scientific conferences.
• The candidate will also engage in regular collaborative meetings with teams of scientists locally and internationally, including the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. There will also be training opportunities for subject-specific and generic research skills, aiming to help the candidate to enhance his/her employability.

Interested applicants should apply through the TOUCH online platform by submitting a full CV, a motivation letter, two letters of recommendation and academic and English level certificates. The call will be open from the 1st of April to the 30th of June 2024. More information about the TOUCH project, the recruitment process, and the application platform are available on the TOUCH website .

Requirements

Research Field

Biological sciences

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field

Computer science

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Languages

ENGLISH

Level

Excellent

Additional Information
Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR)

Country

Spain

City

Barcelona

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://webs.uab.cat/touch/

Contact

State/Province

Barcelona

City

Barcelona

Website

http://www.uab.cat

E-Mail

[email protected]

STATUS: EXPIRED