A postdoc position is currently available at the Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University, Sweden. The opening is temporary for 2 years and available from Jan 1th 2023 or as agreed.

Description of the project

The postdoc will work in the laboratory of Prof Maria Fällman. The studies are focused on molecular mechanisms in bacterial pathogens important for their ability to establish and maintain persistent infections in presence of competing microbiota and an active immune system. Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and to some extent Salmonella enterica are commonly employed as model pathogens. 

The postdoc project involves studies of bacterial in vivo gene expression in infected tissue as well as from bacteria exposed to infection related conditions in vitro and aims at identifying bacterial components that are critical for infection.  

Work responsibilities

The postdoctoral project is focused on bacterial regulatory mechanisms that enable bacteria to establish and maintain infection in tissue. The person we are looking for will be responsible for and perform bioinformatic analyses, which in some cases can be combined with wet lab experiments. The methods used are classic microbiological and molecular biological techniques including RNA/ChIP/Ribo-seq and analysis of data with various bioinformatics tools including machine learning methods.

Eligibility 

A person who has been awarded a doctorate or a foreign qualification deemed to be the equivalent of a doctorate in microbiology/molecular biology or bioinformatics is eligible for appointment as postdoctoral researcher. This eligibility requirement must be met no later than the time at which the appointment decision is made. 

Previous training and experience from programming in R or Phyton, working in the LINUX/UNIX environment, and analysis of NGS data using different bioinformatic tools are required. 

The candidate is expected to be highly motivated, and to have excellent skills in oral and written English, strong work ethics and critical thinking abilities. The candidate should also be able to work independently and in collaboration with others with design and analyses of experiments, present own research and write scientific papers.  

Additional useful qualifications 

Since appointment as a postdoctoral researcher is a career-development position for junior researchers, we are primarily interested in applicants who completed their doctoral degree no more than three years before the application deadline. If there are special reasons, an applicant who has completed their degree earlier than that may be considered. Special reasons include absence due to illness, parental leave, clinical practice, appointments of trust for a trade union organisation or other similar circumstances, and for relevant duties/assignments within the subject area. 

Previous training and experience in using microbiology techniques, molecular biology techniques, cell and animal infection models are strong merits. Experience with Machine Learning techniques, ideally with examples of applying such techniques on NGS data, is a strong merit.

Application

The application must include:

• Description of your research interests and a statement describing why you are interested in the position.
• CV
• List of publications
• Degree certificate from doctoral studies and other relevant degrees
• Contact details of two reference persons

The application must be written in Swedish or English. The application must be made via our e-recruitment system Varbi and must be received latest November 23rd 2022. 

We look forward to receiving your application!

More information about the position

The appointment is a full-time, fixed-term position for 2 years in accordance with the terms of contract for fixed-term employment as a postdoctoral researcher from 1 February 2022. 

More information about the group's research can be found on our website, https://www.mims.umu.se/groups/maria-fallman.html