Postdoc focusing on the role of infective competence of the human microbiome in health and disease

The Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) is an interdisciplinary research centre of the University of Luxembourg. We conduct fundamental and translational research in the field of Systems Biology and Biomedicine – in the lab, in the clinic and in silico. We focus on neurodegenerative processes and are especially interested in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and their contributing factors.

The LCSB recruits talented scientists from various disciplines: computer scientists, mathematicians, biologists, chemists, engineers, physicists and clinicians from more than 50 countries currently work at the LCSB. We excel because we are truly interdisciplinary and together we contribute to science and society.

The University of Luxembourg has the following vacancy at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB):Postdoctoral researcher focusing on the infective competence of the human microbiome in health and disease.

AREA: Computational and experimental study of gut microbiome-borne pathogenicity.

DESCRIPTION:

The Systems Ecology group at the LCSB is further expanding its research efforts on microbiomes and has an immediate opening for a highly motivated and talented postdoctoral researcher (entry- to advanced-level position) to work on the resolution of the role of microbiome-borne virulence factors, antibiotic resistance genes, and biosynthetic gene clusters in human health and disease using computational biology approaches.

The human microbiome represents a reservoir of pathogen-associated genes, more specifically virulence factors, including toxins, antimicrobial resistance genes and biosynthetic gene clusters. Studies focusing on the role of these infection-mediating genes are typically limited to specific pathogenic taxa and seldomly consider the overall infective competence represented by them in the context of the microbiome. Here, using a triptych approach leveraging in silico, in vitro and in vivo methods, we aim to specifically and systematically characterise and validate microbiome-borne VFs, implicated in human diseases, with a particular focus on their cytotoxicity and immunogenicity.

To achieve these aims, this project is a close collaboration between the Systems Ecology group (head: Paul Wilmes, Luxembourg, the Molecular Disease Mechanisms group (co-head: Elisabeth Letellier, Luxembourg), the EMBL-EBI’s Microbiome Informatics team (head: Robert Finn, United Kingdom), and the Protein Expression and Purification Core Facility (head: Kim Remans, Germany). The current position will build on the computational solutions developed by the project partners, notably PathoFact and MGnify.