Postdoctoral Position in Molecular Evolution

Postdoctoral Position in Molecular Evolution

Uppsala University

Uppsala, Sweden

The position is placed in the Molecular Evolution program, with main supervisor Jennifer James. The applicant will become a member of a newly established research group working at the intersection of population genetics, phylogenetic analysis, and proteomics. If you are interested in using bioinformatics and computational biology to address big question in evolutionary biology, please get in touch!

Duties

This is a VR-funded postdoctoral research position. The proposed work will be entirely computational, focussing on analysing existing proteomic and genomic datasets. The postdoctoral researcher will therefore be responsible for writing code, conducting statistical analyses, and for writing and publishing scientific articles.

The project aims understand how protein domains come to be combined and arranged in protein coding genes, in order to address the following three research questions:

• How do protein domains become associated over evolutionary time, and do any domain properties predict having a high number of interaction partners?
• Where does selection tend to act in multidomain proteins?
• Is variation in the rate of association of protein domains, or variation in rates of rearrangement, driven by selection? Are particular domain combinations associated with certain clades of organisms, and could this be an informative character to understand phylogenies, or to infer genome rearrangement events?

The successful applicant will be expected to spearhead the project work and to develop upon these ideas, with flexibility to shape the precise direction of the research to their own interests.

Requirements

We are looking for a highly motivated and creative individual with a PhD degree in the field of biology, or a foreign degree equivalent to a PhD degree in the field of biology. The degree needs to be obtained by the time of the decision of employment. Priority will be given to applicants who have completed their degree no more than three years before the deadline for applications. Due to special circumstances, the degree may have been obtained earlier. The three-year period can be extended due to circumstances such as sick leave, parental leave, duties in labour unions, etc. Candidates must be able to express themselves fluently in spoken and written English.

An ability to code (e.g., in Python) is a valuable skill for this post. Experience working with a high-performance computer cluster is also important, as is an ability to use command line tools, and to conduct statistical analyses using programmes such as R.

Additional qualifications

An evolutionary biology background will be considered beneficial for this position. Experience with computational biology, bioinformatics or mathematics is desired, as are good communication skills and an ability to work collaboratively and independently. An interest in developing research ideas and exploring new methods will also be advantageous. The ideal candidate is comfortable with bioinformatics and population genetics, and is excited to make this project their own!