PhD-student and Post-doc position

Added on Feb 19, 2010

Employer description

The department of psychiatry of the VU University Medical Center / GGZinGeest and the department of biological psychology of the VU University have two vacancies: one PhD-student and one Post-doc.

More information about the psychiatry department of the VU University Medical Center: The main research aim of the department of Psychiatry is to contribute to better prevention and treatment of common mental disorders.Look at their website for more information.

More information about GGZinGeest (in Dutch):
GGZ inGeest biedt psychiatrische zorg op maat. Niet alleen aan ouderen, maar ook aan kinderen, jongeren en volwassenen. De persoonlijke aandacht voor de cliënt staat altijd voorop. GGZ inGeest heeft een bijzonder samenwerkingsverband met VU medisch centrum. Daardoor kunnen we lichaam en geest integraal benaderen. Want psychische klachten gaan vaak samen met lichamelijke, en andersom.
More information can be found on the GGZinGeest website.

More information about the biological psychology department of the VU University:
The Faculty of Psychology and Education of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam has ten departments, Biological Psychology is one of the departments. Every department has its own webpage, mainly used for presentation of its research activities. More information can be found on their website.

Job description

The departments of psychiatry and biological psychology of the VU University Medical Center and VU University collaborate in a large-scale study into the genetics of major depressive disorder. For this study, genome-wide data (SNP and CNV) are available. Recently, further funding was obtained from the National Institutes of Health in America and the Dutch interuniversity ‘Center for Medical Systems Biology (CMSB)’, which will be used to generate gene-expression profiles of normal twins and depressed persons. This will enable us to examine the gene-environment interaction in predicting major depressive disorder. To achieve this, we will use both existing statistical models, but also further develop those to better answer the study’s research questions. For that, we will collaborate with Dr. de Menezes from the Biostatistics group at the VU University Medical Center.

Job requirements

PhD-student: University Graduate with affinity in genetic epidemiological research. You have excellent analytical and statistical experience (e.g. through use of programs such as R, SPSS, SAS, PLINK, MLwin) and good qualities in scientific writing. Experience with high-dimensional data analysis and/or Bayesian modelling is an advantage but not essential.

Post-doc: You received your PhD in the genetics or bioinformatics field, have affinity with both topics and excellent analytical and statistical skills. You have experience using statistical software – an experience using e.g. R or MLwin is an advantage. You have excellent oral and written communication skills both with statisticians/bioinformaticians and with geneticists.

Job benefits

PhD-student: Temporarily appointment for 4 years, resulting in a dissertation. The gross monthly salary coming with a full-time appointment will amount to € 2.186,- in the first year to €2.537,- in the fourth year: FWG 54 CAO GGZ (P-scale of the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities; CAO-NU).

Post-doc: Temporarily appointment for 2 years. Depending on training and work experience the gross monthly salary coming with a full-time appointment will amount to a maximum of € 3.955,- : FWG 60 CAO GGZ (scale 10, CAO-NU).

Apply information

More information
Information about the studies involved can be obtained from www.nesda.nl and www.tweelingenregister.org.
More information regarding these vacancies can be obtained from: