Job opening PhD Researcher in Artificial Intelligence for Detecting Epistasis in ALS

Tilburg University Tilburg School of Economics and Management and Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences

is looking for a

PhD Researcher in Artificial Intelligence for Detecting Epistasis in ALS

Department: Intelligent Systems

Location: Tilburg

Contract size: 1.0 fte (40 hours per week)

Full-time gross monthly salary:

Contract duration: 48 months

Intended start date: 1 April 2026

Tilburg School of Economics and Management and Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences at Tilburg University (TiU) is recruiting a doctoral candidate in the domain of genomic data science. The PhD researcher will contribute to the research project Artificial Intelligence for Detecting Epistasis in ALS a collaboration between Tilburg University and UMC Utrecht. This project is led by dr. Marleen Balvert TiSEM TiU who will be the promotor. The researcher will be co-supervised by dr. Sharon Ong TSHD TiU and Prof. dr. Jan Veldink UMC Utrecht.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease with a genetic foundation. Some of the mutations in our DNA also called variants that lead to ALS are known. However it is still unknown which genetic variants have led to the disease for the majority of patients. Recent research has found that there are variants that sometimes do and sometimes do not lead to ALS. A likely explanation is found in so-called epistasis: two (or three or more) genetic characteristics only lead to disease if an individual has all of them. Finding groups of genetic characteristics that cause ALS paves the way for further understanding the disease and for treatment development. This project aims to develop new methods that can identify groups of ALS-causing variants from the Project MinE data a large dataset containing the genomic information of over a hundred thousand individuals with and without ALS.

Your position

The PhD researcher will together with the supervision team

• develop and apply classification models that can determine whether an individual is an ALS patient or not based on their genomic information. This model should handle population structure and data sparsity;
• develop a model interpreter that can explain which genetic features the classification model uses to determine whether an individual is an ALS patient;
• publish results in scientific journals and present results at (international) conferences.

Requirements

Firstly we understand that no candidate will meet every single requirement. If you are excited about this position but do not tick every box we still encourage you to your application tell us not only about the qualifications you bring but also about the areas you are eager to develop further and how you foresee doing that. We invite candidates of all genders ethnicities and orientations.

Your qualifications

• Masters degree in Data Science Artificial Intelligence Computational Biology Bioinformatics. Mathematics Operations Research or a closely related field.
• Programming Skills in Python and R.
• Research or coding experience in machine learning and deep learning techniques.
• Good command of English (spoken and written).
• High desirable: bachelor/masters degree in Biological Sciences or a closely related field some knowledge of mechanisms implicated in ALS pathogenesis experience with analyzing biological data (e.g. data from GWAS NGS RNA-seq)

Our offer

Tilburg University offers excellent benefits in a pleasant working environment:

• Employment of 1.0 fte (40 hours per week).
• A salary of minimum 3059 and maximum 3881 gross per month for full-time employment based on UFO profile PhD student and salary scale P.
• You will be given a temporary employment contract for the duration of 1 year. Upon positive outcome of the first-year evaluation you will receive a subsequent employment contract that will be extended for an additional 3 years.
• Vacation pay of 8% and a year-end bonus of 8.3%.
• Over 8 weeks of vacation leave.
• Reimbursement sustainable commuting: walking cycling and public transport.
• Options model for additional leave pension a bicycle or personal training.
• Moving allowance (subject to conditions).
• 30% rule for international employees (if applicable).
• Pension through ABP.
• Support for your personal development and career and a broad package of fringe benefits (including excellent technical infrastructure savings schemes and excellent sport facilities).
• Inclusive work culture: everyone welcome equal opportunities.
• A green inviting campus thats easily accessible by public transport.

For more information please see our website and the CLA Dutch Universities.

Want to know more

Would you like to know more before applying Feel free to contact dr. Marleen Balvert at

Want to apply

To apply please submit:

• a motivation letter in which you describe why you want to do this research and why you are the right person to do it;
• a full curriculum vitae;
• academic transcripts of your Bachelor and (Research) Masters degrees
• a sample of writing such as your Masters thesis or a relevant paper;
• contact details of two academic referees

We kindly invite you to apply before 2 March 2026; this can only be done online.

The first selection interviews will take place in the week of 9 March 2026. The starting date of this position is 1 April 2025 or soon after.

The selection committee consists of:

1. dr. Marleen Balvert (Associate Professor at TiSEM TiU)
2. dr. Sharon Ong (Assistant Professor at TSHD TiU)
3. Prof. dr. Jan Veldink(Full Professor at the Department of Neurology UMC Utrecht).

This vacancy has been published simultaneously internally and case of equal suitability our preference is for an internal candidate.

About Tilburg University

Tilburg University is an academic inclusive and engaged community. Together with nearly 3000 employees we are committed to broad prosperity sustainably and inclusion. For current and future generations. We develop and share knowledge for the requirements of people and our society. This is how we contribute to solving complex social issues and help society move forward.

We educate our 19500 students of 110 nationalities to become responsible leaders with knowledge skills and character. With our education and research for broad prosperity we exceedingly focus on themes such as mental and preventive care an inclusive labor market the energy transition and digitalization.

Aboutthe Research Center forCognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence

TheResearch Center forCognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence at Tilburg University is part of the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences. Thecenteremphasizes innovativecutting-edgeresearch in those areas of cognitive science that bring together psychological and computational theories and methodologies. The groupis responsible forthe Bachelor and the Master program Cognitive Science & Artificial Intelligence is co-responsible for the university-wide data science Master program Data Science & Society and is affiliated with theJheronimusAcademy of Data Science (). Researchers in the Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligencecenterhave access to computer clusters experimental lab facilities and the virtual and mixed reality DAF Technology Lab and its sensing technologies ( Moreover researchers playan important rolein Mind Labs () an initiative that fosterscollaborations between knowledge institutions and corporations in the field of interactive technologies andbehavior.

AboutDeep Learning for PerceptionResearchUnit

You will be embedded in the DeepLearning forPerception Research Unit which focuses on developing deep learning methods in contextshallmarked by a high degree of complexity and our researchwe study generative models ofperception. We also addresstransparency and explainability of deep learning models in combination with techniques designed to reduce complexity of deep learning architectures.

Application Code

Tilburg University uses the NVP job application code.

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