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🧬 PhD / Postdoctoral Positions in Neurogenomics & Human Brain Development | Université de Montréal
Institution: Université de Montréal
Department: Department of Pediatrics
Research Centre: CHU Sainte-Justine
Laboratory: Jacquemont Lab
📍 Location: Montréal, Québec, Canada 🇨🇦
💼 Position: PhD / Postdoctoral Research Positions – Neurogenomics, Functional Genomics & Human Brain Development
🔬 Research Area: Human Genetics | Neurogenomics | Functional Genomics | Neurodevelopment | Autism | Intellectual Disability | Schizophrenia | Brain Development | Single-Cell Transcriptomics | Neuroimaging | Bioinformatics
The Jacquemont Lab, led by Dr. Sébastien Jacquemont, M.D., in the Department of Pediatrics at the Université de Montréal and CHU Sainte-Justine, is recruiting trainees and researchers for projects investigating how genetic variants influence the transcriptome, epigenome, cellular architecture, and molecular organization of the human brain.
The laboratory studies how rare genomic variants contribute to neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, including autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, and schizophrenia, and how these variants affect brain development.
🔬 What You’ll Work On
Human Genetics & Rare Genomic Variants
Investigate how rare gene-disrupting variants, copy-number variants (CNVs), single-nucleotide variants (SNVs), and other genomic alterations influence human brain development and neurodevelopmental disorders.
🧠 Neurodevelopment & Brain Biology
Study the molecular and cellular mechanisms through which genetic variation affects the developing and mature human brain, including changes in cellular composition, gene expression, and brain structure.
🧬 Functional Genomics
Integrate genetic information with transcriptomic and epigenomic data to characterize the molecular consequences of disease-associated variants.
🧫 Single-Cell & Single-Nucleus Transcriptomics
Analyze single-nucleus RNA-seq and bulk RNA-seq datasets to investigate cell-type-specific molecular signatures in human brain tissue.
🧠 Developing Human Brain
Use fetal and developing brain resources to investigate genetic and molecular mechanisms during the developmental period when many neurodevelopmental conditions originate.
🧬 Somatic Mosaicism
Investigate post-zygotic somatic mutations that may occur in only a subset of brain cells and may therefore be undetectable through conventional blood-based genetic testing.
🧠 Neuroimaging & Brain Structure
Use large-scale MRI datasets and electronic health records to investigate structural brain alterations associated with genetic risk for neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.
🔬 Research Resources & Approaches
The Jacquemont Lab works at the interface of human genetics, functional genomics, neuroscience, developmental biology, and neuroimaging.
Researchers have access to:
- Approximately 4,000 post-mortem human cortical samples
- Whole-genome sequencing data
- Bulk RNA sequencing
- Single-nucleus RNA sequencing
- Fetal brain tissue through the Molecular Architecture of the Developing Brain (MADB) resource
- High-resolution post-mortem MRI
- ATAC-seq
- Genomic and epigenomic datasets
- Large-scale neuroimaging datasets
- Electronic health records
- Quantitative molecular measurements of human brain tissue
- High-performance computing resources
The lab is embedded within the Azrieli Research Centre of CHU Sainte-Justine and has access to the UniC high-performance computing platform and the IMAGINE neuroimaging platform.
🧪 Research Projects
The team is recruiting candidates for three distinct sub-projects. Applicants can indicate their preferred project in their application or cover letter.
Project 1: Effects of Gene-Disrupting Variants & Neurodevelopmental Disorders on the Cellular and Molecular Architecture of the Human Brain
Many gene-disrupting CNVs and single-nucleotide variants are associated with neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.
This project aims to quantify the transcriptomic effects of different classes of genetic variants in human brain tissue.
Research will be conducted at both:
- Bulk-tissue resolution
- Single-nucleus resolution
The project uses datasets containing approximately 4,000 human brain samples, including both adolescent/adult brain tissue and primary tissue from the developing brain.
Researchers will investigate whether variant-driven molecular signatures converge with molecular dysregulation observed in:
- Autism
- Schizophrenia
- Other neurodevelopmental disorders
The candidate will also reprocess independent case-control transcriptomic datasets through a single harmonized analytical pipeline to perform meta-analysis and investigate convergence between disease-associated and variant-driven molecular signatures.
Project 2: Somatic Mosaicism in the Developing Human Brain
Germline exome and whole-genome sequencing can identify a genetic diagnosis in only a proportion of individuals with brain malformations and developmental abnormalities.
One potential explanation is post-zygotic somatic mosaicism, where mutations arise after fertilization and are present only in a subset of cells.
This project will use high-depth whole-genome sequencing of developing primary brain tissue from individuals with abnormalities such as:
- Ventriculomegaly
- Agenesis of the corpus callosum
- Cortical malformations
The project will also include structurally normal controls.
The candidate will help establish an initial map of:
- Somatic variant allele fractions
- Mutation signatures
- Regional distribution of somatic variants
- Genes and pathways recurrently disrupted beyond the PI3K–AKT–mTOR pathway
This project provides an opportunity to study the somatic mutational landscape of the developing human brain.
Project 3: MRI Structural Brain Alterations Across Genetic Risk for Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Our current understanding of how genetic variants associated with neurodevelopmental disorders affect brain structure comes from a relatively small number of genetic variants.
In this collaborative project, researchers will use electronic health records from both the SickKids and CHU Sainte-Justine Hospital networks to investigate structural brain MRI changes associated with hundreds of different genetic variants linked to neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.
The project involves processing complex datasets containing several tens of thousands of MRI scans.
This project is particularly suited to candidates interested in:
- Neuroimaging
- MRI analysis
- Computational biology
- Statistics
- Data science
- Genetics
- Large-scale biomedical datasets
🎓 Study Backgrounds
Individuals who have completed or are about to complete training in the following areas are invited to apply:
- Human genetics
- Medical genetics
- Genomics
- Bioinformatics
- Computational biology
- Biomedical sciences
- Neuroscience
- Statistics
- Biostatistics
- Data science
- Computer science
- Machine learning
- Molecular biology with a strong quantitative component
Physicians (M.D.) with research training in genetics or neuroscience are also encouraged to apply.
The advertised profiles include opportunities for M.Sc., Ph.D. and Postdoctoral researchers, depending on the candidate’s training level and project.
💻 Required Expertise & Skills
Depending on the selected project, candidates should have skills in some of the following areas:
Programming & Computational Research
- Strong programming skills in R and/or Python
- Comfortable working with high-performance computing clusters
- Computational analysis of large biomedical datasets
- Reproducible workflow practices
Transcriptomics
Experience analyzing transcriptomic data, particularly:
- Single-nucleus RNA-seq
- Seurat
- Scanpy
- Liger
- DESeq2
- Pseudo-bulk differential expression
- Cell-type annotation
Human Genomics
Familiarity with:
- Human genomic datasets
- Whole-genome sequencing
- Whole-exome sequencing
- CNV calling
- SNV analysis
- Indel analysis
- Genetic variant interpretation
Statistics
- Solid foundation in applied statistics
- Quantitative data analysis
- Statistical modelling
- Reproducible analytical workflows
Neuroimaging
- Experience or interest in neuroimaging analysis
- MRI data processing
- Structural brain analysis
Not every candidate is expected to have experience in all of these areas. Expertise requirements will depend on the selected research project.
🌟 What You’ll Gain
- Hands-on experience in human neurogenomics
- Training in functional genomics
- Experience with bulk and single-nucleus RNA-seq
- Exposure to large-scale whole-genome sequencing datasets
- Experience working with rare genetic variants
- Training in transcriptomic and epigenomic analysis
- Experience with human brain tissue datasets
- Exposure to fetal and developing brain research
- Experience with somatic mosaicism research
- Training in computational and statistical analysis
- Exposure to large-scale neuroimaging datasets
- Experience using high-performance computing resources
- Interdisciplinary research experience across genetics, neuroscience, genomics and neuroimaging
- Collaboration within a multidisciplinary research team
🧠 Research Themes
The Jacquemont Lab investigates questions surrounding:
- Rare genetic variants
- Neurodevelopmental disorders
- Autism spectrum disorder
- Intellectual disability
- Schizophrenia
- Human brain development
- Functional genomics
- Transcriptomics
- Epigenomics
- Single-cell and single-nucleus biology
- Somatic mosaicism
- Neuroimaging
- Genomic medicine
- Cellular architecture of the human brain
- Molecular architecture of the developing brain
💰 Funding
The positions are fully funded.
The laboratory’s research environment provides access to major genomic, neuroimaging, computational and human brain tissue resources through CHU Sainte-Justine and the Université de Montréal research infrastructure.
👨🔬 Position Details
Institution: Université de Montréal
Department: Department of Pediatrics
Research Centre: CHU Sainte-Justine
Laboratory: Jacquemont Lab
Principal Investigator: Dr. Sébastien Jacquemont, M.D.
Position: PhD / Postdoctoral Research Positions
Research Area: Neurogenomics & Human Brain Development
Location: Montréal, Québec, Canada 🇨🇦
Research Focus: Human Genetics | Functional Genomics | Neurodevelopment | Transcriptomics | Neuroimaging
Research Models: Human brain tissue | Developing human brain | Human genomic datasets
Key Technologies: WGS | RNA-seq | Single-nucleus RNA-seq | ATAC-seq | MRI | Genomic Analysis
Programming: R | Python
Computational Environment: High-performance computing
Funding: Fully Funded
📄 How to Apply
Interested candidates should review the research projects and identify the project that best matches their research background, computational skills and scientific interests.
Candidates are encouraged to indicate their preferred sub-project when applying.
The laboratory’s webpage provides additional information about the research team and available opportunities:
Jacquemont Lab – Université de Montréal
Suggested Application Materials
Candidates should be prepared to provide relevant academic and research information, including:
- CV/Resume
- Academic background
- Research experience
- Relevant technical and computational skills
- Research interests
- Motivation for joining the Jacquemont Lab
- Preferred research sub-project
Note: The provided position announcement does not specify a single application deadline or contact email, so these details should be verified through the laboratory or official Université de Montréal recruitment channel before applying.
📌 Job Details
Institution: Université de Montréal
Department: Department of Pediatrics
Research Centre: CHU Sainte-Justine
Laboratory: Jacquemont Lab
Position: PhD / Postdoctoral Researcher
Principal Investigator: Dr. Sébastien Jacquemont, M.D.
Location: Montréal, Québec, Canada 🇨🇦
Research Area: Neurogenomics | Human Genetics | Functional Genomics
Core Research: Neurodevelopment | Human Brain Development | Genetic Variants
Additional Areas: Autism | Intellectual Disability | Schizophrenia | Transcriptomics | Epigenomics | Somatic Mosaicism | Neuroimaging
Major Technologies: WGS | RNA-seq | Single-Nucleus RNA-seq | ATAC-seq | MRI
Programming: R | Python
Data Analysis: Transcriptomics | Genomics | Statistics | Neuroimaging
Funding: Fully Funded
Research Projects: 3 Sub-projects
Admission/Recruitment Campaign: 2027 Student Recruitment in Maternal and Child Health
Category
PhD Positions | Postdoctoral Positions | Neurogenomics | Human Genetics | Functional Genomics | Bioinformatics | CHU Sainte-Justine | Canada PhD | Fully Funded PhD | Research Positions
🏷️ Tags
#PhD #Postdoc #PhDPosition #PostdoctoralPosition #UniversiteDeMontreal #CHUSainteJustine #Neurogenomics #HumanGenetics #FunctionalGenomics
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