The Mullins Lab at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is seeking a Postdoctoral Fellow with a PhD in Statistical Genetics, Computational Biology or a similar field, to work on a NIMH-funded project to develop latent factor and network models of neuropsychiatric disorder genetics. This multidisciplinary project is a collaboration with Dr. David Knowles’s Lab at New York Genome Center and Columbia University.
Psychiatric disorders are highly comorbid, have substantial diagnostic overlap, and share clinical features and genetic etiology. Genetic studies continue to identify hundreds of genetic associations with neuropsychiatric disorders, however translating these into causal genes or variants, biological mechanisms, and therapeutic targets remains a major challenge. In this project, a suite of innovative computational methods being developed by the Knowles Lab will be applied to: 1) determine the shared and distinct genetic components across neuropsychiatric disorders and their subphenotypes, via latent factor analyses applied to genome-wide association study (GWAS) results, 2) infer the gene regulatory and causal networks underlying these components by integrating ‘omics data from brain tissues and cell-types via network causal inference analysis, and 3) uncover how common and rare genetic variants disrupt these networks using a variety of network-based approaches for modeling mutational data. These novel methods will be applied to large-scale genotyping and sequencing datasets, from both early onset disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and developmental delay, and later onset disorders such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and major depressive disorder.
Roles & Responsibilities
The Postdoctoral Fellow will work under the supervision of Dr. Niamh Mullins, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences and the Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Responsibilities will include genetic association analyses of clinical features across neuropsychiatric 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 and the Knowles Lab, where a Postdoctoral Fellow and Staff Scientist will focus on the methods development. The Postdoctoral Fellow will also have opportunities to work on other projects in the Mullins Lab, and more widely, according to their interests.
Environment
The Mount Sinai Health System encompasses the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and eight hospital campuses in the New York metropolitan area, and is internationally acclaimed for its excellence in research, patient care, and education across a range of specialties. The Icahn School of Medicine is located on Mount Sinai’s main campus next to Central Park in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The Mullins Lab is part of the Department of Psychiatry, the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences and the Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine. Through the Mount Sinai hospital system, the lab has access to electronic health records of over 5 million patients for research, ~54,000 of whom currently have genetic data available through the BioMe biobank, with unprecedented expansion underway through the Mount Sinai Million study.
The Mullins Lab conducts large-scale genomic studies of psychiatric disorders to identify genetic associations, prioritize likely causal genes or variants and their functional consequences, uncover relevant tissues, cell-types, pathways and potential therapeutic targets, and develop genetic risk predictors. We are key contributors to the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, particularly the Bipolar Disorder and Suicide Working Groups, and we collaborate widely with labs at Mount Sinai and other institutes. We provide a vibrant work environment, with access to large-scale genomic datasets, high performance scientific computing facilities, seminar series, training workshops, local, national, and international conferences, funding opportunities, and mentorship resources. The Mullins Lab is committed to fostering a culture that is welcoming and inclusive to diverse groups of individuals, and is passionate about supporting the development of team members scientifically and professionally.
Eligibility
Required:
- PhD in Statistical Genetics, Biostatistics, Computational Biology, Bioinformatics or similar field
- Programming skills (particularly R, Unix/ Linux)
- Experience working with genetic datasets
- Proficiency in running statistical genetics software
- Excellent written and oral communication skills in English
- Ability to work independently and as part of a collaborative international team
Desired:
- Working knowledge of GWAS and post-GWAS analyses
- Experience with diverse ancestry genetic data
- Familiarity with psychiatric nosology
Starting date
This position is now open but with flexible start date before Jan 2023
Duration
Initial appointment for two years with opportunity for extension
Benefits
This opportunity comes with competitive salary and relocation assistance. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai offers visa sponsorship, medical benefits, subsidized child care resources, and subsidized apartment rentals in Manhattan to Postdoctoral Fellows and their families.
Apply
Please send the following materials to niamh.mullins@mssm.edu:
- CV
- Cover letter
- Names and contact details of two references
Contact: For questions about this position, please contact Dr. Niamh Mullins niamh.mullins@mssm.edu