Doctoral student

07.12.2022, Wissenschaftliches Personal

The Chair of Phytopathology at the Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Life Sciences, hires a Doctoral student in the field of fungal plant-infection genomics

The focus of our group is on understanding the molecular interaction of plants with pathogenic fungi and its evolutionary dynamics. We concentrate on host basal immunity and susceptibility pathways and fungal virulence effectors. In the current project, we study powdery mildew fungi as biotrophic pathogens infecting agriculturally relevant crop plant species and focus on species of the genus Blumeria that infect cereal host plants. More specifically, we aim at understanding the function of genomic innovations in Blumeria hordei, which are driven by recombination, transposable elements (TE) and TE-derived neo-functionalization. To this end, we want to integrate genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics and functional biology to understand how genomic innovations translate into novel virulence function in powdery mildew.

The candidate should show a strong interest in hands on molecular plant pathology and data integration. Knowledge and practical experience is desired in molecular biology of plants or fungi. Furthermore, English skills, both written and spoken, are essential and the candidate should be willing to learn and contribute to computational biology tasks. She/he should have a very good master´s degree in Biology or closely related disciplines.

The project will be carried out in the group of Prof. Dr. Ralph Hückelhoven at the TUM campus in Freising-Weihenstephan, close to Munich. The chair hosts several research groups studying molecular biology of plant immunity and plant-plant pathogen evolution. The project is part of the newly funded collaborative research center TRR356 facilitating strong interactions among groups with overlapping and complementary expertise in plant microbe interactions. Our project is a joined project with the group of Prof. Aurélien Tellier (TUM Population Genetics) and will be additionally supported by central projects on bioinformatics and data management. In addition, we have several collaborations both national and international and direct access to state of the art technology for genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, all kinds of molecular biology and cell biology techniques and high quality plant growth rooms and infection chambers.

The Technical University of Munich is an equal opportunity employer and particularly welcomes applications from qualified women and individuals with disabilities. The salary is according to German/Bavarian income level TV-L E13 (65%). Please send your comprehensive application including a letter of motivation (1 page), your CV, all relevant certificates, list of publications, and names of 2 potential referees as a single pdf file by email to: [email protected]. Applications by regular mail are also possible. Applications will be reviewed regularly from December 10th 2022 on but accepted until a suitable candidate is found.

Website of Chair of Phytopathology

Prof. Dr. Ralph Hückelhoven
[email protected]
TUM School of Life Sciences
Technische Universität München
Emil-Ramann-Str. 2
D-85354 Freising-Weihenstephan

Data Protection Information: When you apply for a position with the Technical University of Munich (TUM), you are submitting personal information. With regard to personal information, please take note of the Datenschutzhinweise gemäß Art. 13 Datenschutz-Grundverordnung (DSGVO) zur Erhebung und Verarbeitung von personenbezogenen Daten im Rahmen Ihrer Bewerbung (link). (data protection infor-mation on collecting and processing personal data contained in your application in accordance with Art. 13 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)). By submitting your application, you confirm that you have acknowledged the above data protection information of TUM.

Data Protection Information:
When you apply for a position with the Technical University of Munich (TUM), you are submitting personal information. With regard to personal information, please take note of the Datenschutzhinweise gemäß Art. 13 Datenschutz-Grundverordnung (DSGVO) zur Erhebung und Verarbeitung von personenbezogenen Daten im Rahmen Ihrer Bewerbung. (data protection information on collecting and processing personal data contained in your application in accordance with Art. 13 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)). By submitting your application, you confirm that you have acknowledged the above data protection information of TUM.

Kontakt: [email protected]