Postdoc Position in Biology of Mechanically-Triggered Plant Immunity

Postdoc Position in Biology of Mechanically-Triggered Plant Immunity

Utrecht University - Faculty of Science

Utrecht, Netherlands

Your job

The goal of this postdoc project is to get insights into the molecular processes underlying mechanosensing of pathogens by plant cells. In this project, you will design and perform experiments that will provide a better understanding of how plants respond to mechanical force during infection. This requires a strong scientific basis in combination with your creativity and perseverance. The envisioned approaches aim to identify early signaling proteins and genes, to functionally analyze candidate genes by studying mutants and perturbed proteins, and to study infection phenotypes at the macroscopic, microscopic and biophysical level.

You will join the Translational Plant Biology (TPB) external link group, where this project fits well into our ongoing research on plant disease, immunity, and signaling. A key mission of the group is exploring alternative ways of protecting plants against infectious diseases. This is an urgent challenge, for which novel fundamental insights are crucial as well as their translation to enhancing plant disease resistance. Therefore, it is important to understand the concept of mechanosensing during infection and how this can be applied to improving disease resistance.

This postdoc project is part of the Gravitation program, GreenTE external link (Green Tissue Engineering), a multidisciplinary consortium of 7 Dutch universities. Together, GreenTE will unravel how plants sense and respond to mechanical stimuli. These fundamental insights will be the basis to develop engineering interventions to improve plant regeneration, seed longevity and defenses against disease. You will be an integral member of the GreenTE community, which offers an open, diverse and inspiring environment to engage in multidisciplinary mechanobiology research at the intersection of biology, chemistry and physics. Furthermore, you will have the opportunity to participate in GreenTE events, trainings and collaborations.

Your qualities

This project may be the right fit for you, if you are a proactive, curiosity-driven researcher, who brings a hands-on and can-do mentality. Next to that you have:

• a PhD degree in Biology, Molecular Life Sciences, or related field;
• a strong background in Molecular Plant Biology and Plant-Microbe Interactions, and at least one of the following areas: Biochemistry, Cell Biology, or Biophysics;
• interest in interdisciplinary research, connected to modelling and biophysics, paired with a drive to unravel gene/protein function;
• excellent presentation and writing skills as demonstrated by relevant publications;
• communication skills that enable you to collaborate pleasantly and effectively in the team and consortium;
• working proficiency in English.