biostatistics: 1 PhD studentship & 1 postdoctoral position in Nantes University Hospital (France)

1 PhD studentship & 1 postdoctoral position in Nantes University Hospital (France)

Both positions will be in the Department of Biostatistics (EA 4275), Nantes University Hospital (France) and in the Institute of Transplantation, Urology and Nephrology, INSERM U643, Nantes Hospital (France). Our department of biostatistics is expanding with 1 professor, 3 assistant professors, 2 postdoctoral researchers and 4 PhD students. The two main domains are the analysis of subjective data measures in Health research, such as quality of life outcomes, and the analysis of longitudinal and survival data in predictive medicine. For discussion about this project, please contact Yohann Foucher (Tel: 33(0)2 40 41 28 24, Email: Yohann.Foucher@univ-nantes.fr). To candidate for one of both following positions, you can send your CV at the previous address. You can also send other documents as manuscripts or scientific reports.

The Biostatistic PhD studentship

The aim of this project is to construct a composite surrogate marker of the long-term kidney transplant survival. Determining early surrogate markers of long-term graft outcome is important for optimal medical management. After the exploration of existing literature in multi-state models and time-dependant ROC curves (or other prognostic indexes), the PhD student will apply this methodology to the analysis of the evolution of kidney transplant recipients (cohort DIVAT, www.divat.fr for more details). The PhD student will propose tools for the medical community in transplantation for improving medical decision making. Even if simulations will first be performed in order to evaluate the robustness of statistical methods, this project will be mainly based on real data and close to medical practice. The capacity of the PhD student to work within a multi-disciplinary research team will constitute a very important issue for the candidate evaluation. Applicants should have a master’s degree in statistics with a strong interest in medical statistics and epidemiology and also good programming skills, specifically in R. This studentship is funded full-time for three years by the French direction of hospitalization and care organization (DHOS). It represents a net income of €19,000 per year. It is open to all students from all nationalities. The project is due to begin between the 1st October 2011 and the 1st January 2012. The deadline for application is the 1st December 2011.

The postdoctoral position in Biostatistics

The aim of the survival analysis is to study the correlation between covariates with the time until the failure of interest. The difficulty in transplantation is to define the failure since two terminal events are in competition: death and return in dialysis. Moreover, knowing whether death can be considered as related or independent to transplantation is not possible. The aim of this project is the adaptation of survival relative models in kidney transplantation. We can distinguish two complementary parts in this project: firstly, the statistical developments of models and secondly, the analysis of the cohort
DIVAT (www.divat.fr) for validation of the concept in the transplantation community. Multi-state analysis will also constitute a central point in the research activity. Applicant should have a thesis in Biostatistics with a strong interest in medical statistics and epidemiology and also good programming skills, specifically in R. A solid theoretical background in survival and longitudinal analysis is expected. This studentship is funded full-time for two years by the French national agency of research (ANR). It represents a net income of €23,000 per year. It is open to all students from all nationalities. The project is due to begin from the 1st April 2012 (regarding availability of the applicants). The deadline for application is the 15th February 2012.