MD-PhD Position in Cardiovascular Prevention (Doctoral Assistant)

Recherche

The Preventive Cardiology Unit, headed by Prof. Dr. med. Baris Gencer, focuses on advancing cardiovasuclar prevention through large-scale clinical trials and cohorts with advanced phenotyping and data-driven approaches.

The Preventive Cardiology Research Unit offers a fully funded PhD position within SwissCardIA, starting on September 1st, 2026.

Contexte

Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) is one of five Swiss university hospitals, and a leading institution in clinical care, medical research and academic training. The Cardiology Service at CHUV conducts patient-oriented research with direct clinical and public helath impact, and offers a dynamic academic environment with strong methodological ecosystem and access to an extensive national and international research network.

This PhD position is embedded in SwissCardIA, a large, prospective, population-based cohort study dedicated to individualized primary prevention of coronary atherosclerotic disease. SwissCardIA will recruit n=2’000 asymptomatic, statin-naïve adults aged 50-69 years from the general population and combine:

• Detailed clinical and socio-demographic phenotyping
• Quantitative coronary CT angiography and complementary cardiovascular imaging
• Longitudinal lifestyle monitoring using wearable devices (physical activity, sleep, heart rate dynamics)
• Advanced blood-based biomarkers, including multi-omics and genetic risk scores.

This study is a collaboration between the Cardiology service at CHUV and data scientists at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), enabling the integration of advanced biostatistics and AI-based approaches for the development of next-generation risk prediction frameworks.

This fully-funded 4-year PhD project integrates medical research activities related to cohort data collection and data-driven cardiovascular research. The candidate will actively contribute to the conduct of the cohort while developing an independent scientific research project within SwissCardIA.

            Scientific Scope and Research Opportunities

Despite major advances in cardiovascular prevention, key questions remain unanswered in asymptomatic populations, including:

• How lifestyle behaviors measured objectively by wearables relate to early coronary plaque burden and progression;
• Whether sleep patterns, circadian disruption, or physical activity profiles provide independent prognostic information beyond traditional risk scores;
• How advanced circulating biomarkers and polygenic risk interact with lifestyle exposures and imaging phenotypes;
• Which combinations of multimodal data best characterize individual trajectories of subclinical disease;
• Whether quantitative imaging-derived plaque metrics can serve as intermediate phenotypes for prevention research.

Mission

The PhD candidate is expected to propose and develop an original, hypothesis-driven research project within SwissCardIA, targeting one or several of these open questions, in alignment with their personal expertise and scientific interests. The project should demonstrate clear scientific ambition, methodological rigor, and potential impact on cardiovascular prevention.

Project and Activities

The candidate will be fully embedded in the research activities of the SwissCardIA cohort. All activities, including medical assessments, are conducted within a research framework and contribute directly to data generation and scientific output.

Activities include:

• Participation in participant recruitment, follow-up, and study conduct
• Conduct and supervision of medical study visits as part of standardized research data collection
• Review and interpretation of clinical reports and cardiovascular imaging results in accordance with the study protocol and GCP
• Contribution to the medical and scientific oversight of cohort operations
• Development and execution of an original PhD research project based on the SwissCardIA data
• Advanced statistical data analysis
• Critical literature reviews and meta-analyses
• Active participation in scientific dissemination, including the preparation of abstracts, presentations at national and international conferences, and publications in peer-reviewed journals
• Contribution to academic training and higher education, including involvement in the co-supervision of Master’s thesis students and support of research training activities within the group
• Close collaboration with cardiologists, radiologists, epidemiologists, engineers and data scientists.

The candidate will join an interdisciplinary environment bridging clinical cardiology, imaging, computational science, and public health, with access to one of the most comprehensive cardiovascular prevention datasets in the world.

Profil

We are seeking a highly motivated and qualified physician with a strong commitment to an academic research career and the ambition to address unresolved questions in cardiovascular prevention.

Required qualifications:

• Medical Doctor (MD) with a Swiss federal medical diploma or an equivalent degree recognized in Switzerland, eligible to practice medicine in Switzerland
• Knowledge of Good Clinical Practices
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in French
• Good written and oral communication skills in English (C1 level or above)
• Strong skills in academic research (literature review, etc)
• Strong interest in biostatistics, epidemiology, or data science applied to medicine
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary team

Applicants are expected to demonstrate relevant experience, ideally supported by a scientific track record, in one or more of the following areas:

• Cardiovascular prevention or public health
• Cardiovascular imaging
• Lifestyle research (physical activity, sleep, nutrition)
• Precision medicine
• Wearable technologies and digital health
• Advanced biomarkers (multi-omics)
• Predictive modelling or machine learning in biomedical research

Importantly, candidates should apply with a PhD research proposal or research axis they wish to pursue within the established study framework.

The selected candidate will be embedded in a large, multidisciplinary scientific environment and will benefit from PhD co-supervision by a domain-specific expert from the SwissCardIA scientific consortium, selected according to the chosen research focus.

Nous offrons

The candidate will be employed by CHUV and enrolled for a Doctorate in Life Sciences (PhD) in the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of the University of Lausanne (Unil).

As a CHUV employee, the candidate benefits from :

• Salary according to the regulations of the Swiss National Science Foundation for PhD students
• Flexible working hours; centrally located and modern offices
• 25 days of vacation per year
• First-rate social benefits
• A highly stimulating international and multidisciplinary environment
• Collaboration with world-renowned experts in Switzerland and abroad 
• In case of relocation to Switzerland, access to one of the 500 furnished apartments located in close proximity to CHUV
• Discounts proposed on social and cultural events, goods and other services, thanks to the “H-Oxygène” association
• Participation in the CHUV Mobility Plan (public transportation and e-mobility benefits and discounts)
• Access to high-quality staff restauration across hospital sites, with employees’ discount.