Internship (6 months) position on virus-biofilm interactions in rivers

EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, is one of the most dynamic university campuses in Europe and ranks among the top 20 universities worldwide. The EPFL employs more than 6,500 people supporting the three main missions of the institution: education, research and innovation. The EPFL campus offers an exceptional working environment at the heart of a community of more than 17,000 people, including over 12,500 students and 4,000 researchers from more than 120 different countries.
Your mission :

Viruses are fascinating organisms located somewhere between living and not-living beings. They affect all biological processes on the planet. Biofilms are composed of a crowd of microorganisms which secrete an extracellular matrix around them to collaborate and isolate themselves from the outside world. Biofilms are a life form so common it is estimated most living beings on our planet live in biofilms. One instance of biofilms are the thick greenish or brownish mats on rocks that make you slip when you go in a river. The BIOVIR project of the RIVER lab in EPFL consists in understanding the influence of viruses on the life cycle of these river biofilms.

In the framework of this investigation, we wish to build a collection of phages (a.k.a viruses of bacteria) isolated from stream biofilms to study their natural hosts and their defense mechanisms, the counter-defense mechanisms of the phages, the positive abilities phage can add to their hosts (lysogenic conversion), etc. This mission would be the task of a highly-motivated student finishing his/her master in (micro)biology.

Main duties and responsibilities include :

• Field-work to gather stream biofilms from the Swiss alpine mountains
• Isolate phages from the biofilms using a preexisting collection of alpine river bacteria as bait
• Investigate the taxonomy of the isolated phages with long-read sequencing
• Predict potential hosts of the phages using bioinformatics (analysis of CRISPR arrays...)
• Conduct co-culture assays of phages and bacteria to identify the host range of each phage

Your profile :

• End-of-master internship
• Experience in a microbiology lab
• High motivation and curiosity required!

We offer :

• A world-class research and training environment with access to state-of-the-art research facilities. The work place is EPFL’s Alpine and Polar Environmental Research Centre (ALPOLE) in Sion
• A multi-cultural, interdisciplinary and stimulating work environment in the center of the European Alps
• Good salary for an academic internship

Start date :
The starting date of the position is flexible but a date before October 2024 (end of the field-work season in the Alps) would be preferred.

Term of employment :
Fixed-term (CDD)

Work rate :
100%

Duration :
6 months (to be discussed)

Remark :
Only candidates who applied through EPFL website or our partner Jobup’s website will be considered. Files sent by agencies without a mandate will not be taken into account.

Reference :
Job Nb 3311

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