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Post-doctoral researcher with interests in aging biology, diet, complexity, and statistics

Post-doctoral researcher with interests in aging biology, diet, complexity, and statistics: How does what we eat affect how we age?

Supervisors:
Alan A. Cohen, Nancy Presse, and Félix Camirand Lemyre

We have funding for a post-doctoral researcher as part of our CIHR-funded project entitled “Diet, physiological dysregulation, and aging: understanding longitudinal links through trajectory analysis”. This project aims to assess how dietary patterns affect physiological dysregulation (i.e. loss of homeostasis) that occurs during aging. It will be the first project to assess broadly how human dietary patterns affect aging profiles. To do so, we propose to: 1) characterize dietary patterns and individual longitudinal change in diet; 2) characterize global and system-specific physiological dysregulation and their individual trajectories; and 3) assess links between dietary patterns, and physiological dysregulation trajectories, and their association with health outcomes. We intend to use state-of-the-art statistical approaches to characterize dietary patterns and physiological dysregulation to better account for the complexity existing at every level, such as Bayesian and machine learning models. We have access to the NuAge Database (Quebec Longitudinal Study on Nutrition and Successful Aging) containing a large dataset ofdetailed nutritional assessments, as well as data and frozen biological samples that we are in the process of analyzing to generate detailed biomarker data, and possibly omics data.
The project will be under the supervision of Alan Cohen, who has a background in aging, complex systems theory, biostatistics, evolutionary biology, and physiology. He developed the theoretical and statistical framework for measuring physiological dysregulation. The post-doctoral researcher will also be co-supervised by Nancy Presse and Félix Camirand Lemyre. Nancy Presse is the administrator of the NuAge Database, a registered dietitian/nutritionist, and a researcher with an expertise in nutritional epidemiology and aging. Félix Camirand Lemyre is a professor in statistics at the Mathematics department and an expert in measurement error and non-parametric estimation. The project is a joint effort among the three labs, with roughly equal supervision that could be adjusted depending on the interests and skills of the post-doc.
Candidates must have excellent quantitative skills and the ability to apply them creatively rather than rigidly. Deep intellectual curiosity is also a must. Knowledge of nutrition/diet and/or aging biology would be clear strengths but are not strictly necessary. While we are principally targeting a post-doctoral researcher, a promising Ph.D student could be considered. Disciplinary background is of minimal importance; the Cohen lab regularly includes expertise in fields as diverse as economics, engineering, physics, demography, and ecology.
Quebec and Canada offer a number of excellent opportunities for prestigious fellowships. A competitive salary and working conditions will be offered even in the absence of a fellowship. Sherbrooke is a university town nestled in the beautiful Eastern Townships of the Province of Quebec, close to the US border and just a short drive away from Montreal and Quebec City. The University of Sherbrooke provides an exceptional quality of work and life environment: cost of living is low, with excellent access to outdoor activities. The institution is French-speaking, and while knowledge of French is not a prerequisite, a good-faith effort to learn the language would be expected.
If you are interested, I strongly encourage you to look carefully at the Cohen lab website to make sure your research interests are a fit for the lab, and that the lab policies and philosophy are attractive to you: