Biostatistician

Biostatistician to support clinical research studies in Infectious Diseases

Centre of Excellence for Health, Immunity and Infections (CHIP), Rigshospitalet

We are looking for a full‐time biostatistician with strong epidemiological skills to support a number of ongoing research studies at CHIP, Rigshospitalet – University of Copenhagen (https://chip.dk/). CHIP was founded in 1998 to plan and execute clinical research of excellence on therapies for infectious diseases in general, with a particular focus on HIV and now also SARS-CoV-2. We are an interdisciplinary group with approximately 65 full-time employees working in medical research, public health research, IT and data management, bioinformatics, statistics and epidemiology. CHIP has extensive international collaborations with a track record of cutting- edge clinical research, in both cohort studies and clinical trials. 

Ongoing international cohort studies include EuroSIDA, a prospective observational cohort study, initiated in 1994, following adult people living with HIV (PLWH) across Europe. The International Cohort Consortium of Infectious Disease (RESPOND) builds upon the early collaborative work in HIV cohort studies, including EuroSIDA and was formed in 2017 as a prospective, multi-cohort collaboration for the study of infectious diseases. The large size of RESPOND and its heterogeneous study population with participants from across the whole of Europe and Australia ensure that results are reliable and applicable to a broad population of PLWH.  Similar to RESPOND, the CARE (Common Action against HIV/TB/HCV across the Regions of Europe) project expands on previously established European cohort networks and combines extensive existing data collections and knowledge, with a specific focus on the Russian Federation, Georgia and Ukraine. The aims of these studies are to address clinically relevant research questions, follow the long-term clinical prognosis of PLWH; to assess the impact of antiretroviral drugs on the risk of AIDS and non-AIDS comorbidities; to investigate the outcomes and treatment of viral hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), and tuberculosis (TB) co-infections; and to support public health initiatives (https://www.chip.dk/Research/Studies).

PERSIMUNE is the Danish Centre of Excellence for Personalized Medicine of infectious complications in immune deficiency and is also part of CHIP (http://www.persimune.dk). PERSIMUNE has an underlying hypothesis that across patients with impaired immune function, there is a common pattern of undiscovered risk factors explaining the variation in risk of infectious complications among groups of immunocompromised patients. PERSIMUNE aims at understanding the mechanisms explaining the variation in risk using local and national registry data from routine care and employing a diverse set of methodologies including host and microbial genetics, imaging, and immunological characterization.  It is a collaborative, multidisciplinary research platform across different departments at Rigshospitalet with a world class data warehouse and biobank.

Using data from these studies you will work together with key researchers to address clinical research questions.  Analytic techniques such as time to event analyses using Poisson regression or Cox proportional hazards models, linear regression and logistic regression will be commonly used to analyse the longitudinal data. The data sets are large including complex real-world data collected over many years, and the analytic skills required are those of someone with a keen interest in epidemiology as well as the knowledge of statistical techniques to answer clinically relevant questions.

Duties of the post

You will be part of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics team at CHIP. You will be responsible for biostatistical analyses and are expected to contribute to the design and analysis of research studies.

In addition, you will be expected to:

• Support other researchers in analyses of data from large and complex databases
• Lead and support the writing of papers and present findings based on original research for peer-review journals. 
• Work closely together with other researchers and clinicians, as well as international collaborative organizations
• Support funding initiatives
• Participate in teaching and training activities as part of the position, both at post and pre-graduate level.

Qualification requirements

The candidate is expected to hold a Masters Degree in Medical Statistics, Epidemiology, or equivalent with significant statistical content. Candidates with research experience or with a PhD degree will be preferred. However, for interested candidates at an initial stage in their careers, it will be possible to pursue a PhD. 

In addition, we expect that you have

• A passion for medical research and an interest in infectious diseases
• A strong epidemiological background in addition to biostatistical skills
• Experience in analysis and interpretation of data from large and complex longitudinal data sets
• Knowledge of the statistical package SAS or significant skills in other statistical software packages (STATA, R) and with a willingness to learn SAS
• Ability to communicate statistical concepts effectively to those with only minimal statistical knowledge
• Be able to use English as a working language and demonstrate excellent interpersonal, oral and written communication skills in English
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively on a number of concurrent projects
• Ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team, and collaborate with clinical researchers, and data managers both locally and internationally
• Ability to write reports, research results and draft manuscripts for peer-reviewed publication for a non-technical readership
• Excellent time management and be able to work to deadlines
• Highly self-motivated and hard working
• Commitment to continuous professional development

Conditions

The position is for 12 months with the possibility of extension. The position is funded by research grants. Salary and employment conditions are in accordance with current public agreements between the Capital Region of Copenhagen and the relevant professional organization. Your workplace will be at CHIP, Rigshospitalet. We want to reflect the surrounding society and encourage everyone regardless of personal background to apply.

Application

Your application must be written in English and include a CV, list of publications and conference presentations, and a cover letter expressing your interest and motivation.

Start of employment: 1 June 2021 or as soon as possible hereafter.

For further information, please contact Joanne Reekie (joanne.reekie@regionh.dk / +45 3545 5856)

Interested applicants should apply before 3rd May, 2021.