Postdoctoral Research Associate

Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science • North Chicago, IL

4d • Onsite

About The Position

The Human Performance Laboratory and Center for Lower Extremity Ambulatory Research (CLEAR) at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science is seeking a full-time Postdoctoral Researcher to support a Department of Defense-funded project to identify urinary proteomic biomarkers of bone adaptation and injury in military recruits. Working closely with faculty investigators and research staff, the postdoctoral researcher will play central roles in scientific study operations, standardized assessment protocols, quantitative imaging, data analysis, interpretation, and dissemination. This role will lead the development and implementation of standardized assessment protocols and will have primary responsibility for analysis of high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) data, including segmentation, quality control, feature extraction, and integration with clinical and biomarker data.

Requirements

• Doctoral degree completed by the start date in biomedical engineering, biological science, kinesiology, biochemistry, bone biology, biostatistics, medical imaging, bioinformatics, or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated experience in quantitative research, data analysis, and scientific writing, with evidence of the ability to manage, complete, and communicate rigorous research.
• Working knowledge of longitudinal study designs, statistical modeling, and integration of multimodal human-subjects data.
• Strong scientific judgment, organization, and written and verbal communication, with the ability to work independently and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary, multi-site team.
• Ability to maintain reproducible analysis workflows, clear documentation, secure data organization, and traceable quality-control decisions.
• Knowledge of quantitative image analysis, segmentation, and quality-control principles for biomedical or clinical imaging data.
• Proficiency in at least one scientific programming environment such as R, Python, or MATLAB, including scripted data processing, visualization, and statistical analysis.
• Must achieve satisfactory results from a background check and obtain and maintain required human-subjects protection, data-security, laboratory-safety, imaging, and site-access training or credentials.
• Must be willing and able to work on site, travel to partner and field locations, and occasionally work outside standard hours when required by study operations.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with longitudinal human-subjects, multi-site, military-health, or operational research and with preparing peer-reviewed manuscripts and scientific presentations.
• Direct experience with HR-pQCT, DXA, quantitative computed tomography, or related bone and body-composition imaging methods.
• Experience analyzing bone density, bone microarchitecture, musculoskeletal adaptation, or bone stress injury outcomes.
• Experience integrating imaging with clinical, behavioral, physiological, biomarker, or omics data.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development, piloting, documentation, implementation, and refinement of standardized assessment protocols and SOPs; train study personnel in assigned procedures and document proficiency.
• Contribute to scientific study coordination, data collection, data organization, and monitoring of protocol adherence across study timepoints and partner sites.
• Develop and maintain reproducible workflows for imaging-data intake, participant and visit matching, preprocessing, analysis, version control, metadata, and provenance.
• Analyze HR-pQCT data using validated protocols, including image segmentation, motion and technical quality control, and extraction of bone-density and microstructural features.
• Analyze DXA data using validated, manufacturer-supported procedures, including scan quality control and extraction of lean mass, fat mass, and body-fat measures.
• Implement and document HR-pQCT and DXA quality-assurance procedures, including daily control-phantom review, predefined quality thresholds, repeat-analysis decisions, and exclusions.
• Organize, preprocess, and harmonize imaging, clinical, risk-factor, and biomarker datasets; maintain data dictionaries, analysis-ready files, and traceable quality-control records.
• Conduct advanced longitudinal and integrative statistical analyses under faculty-approved analysis plans, using reproducible code and explicit validation checks.
• Interpret findings with the multidisciplinary study team and coordinate imaging and clinical data harmonization with the faculty-led bioinformatics and proteomics teams.
• Prepare analysis summaries, figures, tables, manuscripts, conference abstracts and presentations, progress-report materials, and other dissemination products.

Benefits

• medical
• dental
• vision plans
• paid parental leave
• short term and long term disability plans
• life insurance
• flexible spending accounts
• 403(b) retirement plan which includes a 8% employer contribution after 2 years of service
• 3 weeks of vacation/ personal leave
• 15 sick days
• 9 paid holidays
• paid winter break
• two floating holidays

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree