34 month - Postdoctoral researcher in computational biology to investigate photosynthesis emergence in Cyanobacteria

34 month - Postdoctoral researcher in computational biology to investigate photosynthesis emergence in Cyanobacteria.

The researcher will operate at the University of Liège, specifically within the Unit of Eukaryotic Phylogenomics (UEP) (https://www.inbios.uliege.be/cms/c_4259640/en/inbios) and the Belgian Coordinated Collections of Microorganisms (BCCM) / ULC of Cyanobacteria (https://bccm.belspo.be/about-us/bccm-ulc.). Supervision will be provided by Professor Denis Baurain (UEP), and Dr. Luc Cornet (BCCM/ULC).

The project aims to identify and study culture collections in order to discover new basal cyanobacteria, to perform a robust phylogenomic analysis of these cyanobacteria using the latest tools in the field (GeneRax, ASTRAL, Asteroid, ALE). The new genomes and  corresponding trees will be mined using HMMER and used for ancestral state reconstruction. Additionally, molecular clock dating will also be conducted.

This project requires a self-reliant researcher in phylogenomics with up-to-date knowledge in this field. Familiarity with cyanobacterial genomics will be considered a plus. An excellent track record of publications and autonomous ability to write scientific papers is required.

The researcher will work closely with a bioinformatician  specialist to make these research efforts reproducible through the development  of Nextflow-Singularity workflows, as maintained by the laboratory [https://github.com/Lcornet/GENERA/]. No prior knowledge of Nextflow or Singularity is required.

Responsibilities

-Perform informed selection of cyanobacterial strains for WG sequencing

-Perform genomic and phylogenetic analyses on Cyanobacteria (e.g., standard and modern phylogenomics, ancestral state reconstruction, inference of gene transfers, metabolic modeling)

Profile

-The researcher must hold a PhD, ideally with 1 to 3 years of postdoctoral experience.

-Researchers must not have worked in Belgium for more than 24 months in the last 3 years.

-Experience in genomics, particularly in phylogenomics, is essential. 

-Proficiency in HPC environments and shell (bash) scripting is required. 

-Knowledge of cyanobacterial genomics will be considered an asset. 

-Experience (or willingness to learn) in Perl and/or Python is desirable.

Job location

-University of Liège, Sart-Tilman campus, Belgium

Contract

-Initially, a one-year contract, extended to 34 month contract based on a positive evaluation.

Application

-The application review process will begin on January 31 and will continue until the position is filled. Submit your application by email to [email protected] and [email protected] with the subject 'Application to JOB2 Computational Biologist'. Include an updated CV with a list of publications, a cover letter, and contact information of two references who are willing to provide feedback on your work.

Information about Liege

https://www.international.uliege.be/cms/c_17661497/en/international-come-to-uliege