Postdoctoral Position: Insect symbiosis

The position, generally funded for a 2-year period, can be extended for 5 years or possibly turned into a permanent one. The selected candidates will be involved in the project entitled Vectors, symbionts and pathogens: a complex story of Triatominae microbiomes funded by Junior Star scheme of Czech Science Foundation. The project main aims are to explore environmental determinants of the microbiome, its transmission, structural and ontogenetic changes, metabolic and immune interaction with host cells, and finally its interaction with pathogens. From the methodological point of view, the project relies on experimental manipulation of the laboratory colonies and extensive field sampling of North American native species. It employs advanced tools for metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and high-end visualization methods (FISH and laser confocal microscopy, EM).

The Postdoctoral candidate must possess a PhD in evolutionary biology, microbiology, parasitology, entomology, genomics, bioinformatics or related relevant field. Solid proficiency with standard molecular techniques and handling large data sets is a must. Candidates experienced in advanced microscopy (SEM, TEM, LCSM), microbiome analyses, transcriptomics and/or genome assembly are preferred. Excellent English communication at both written and oral level is required.

Documents to submit

• CV including a list of publications
• Contact information for two references
• Scanned proof of PhD degree
• Brief description of prior research, skills, experiences and interests (Motivation letter - a single page)

The project offers collaboration with two US partnering laboratories, including funds for annual short-term research visits. The group supports highly international environment and its members are guaranteed direct access to Confocal Microscopy facility, Electron Microscopy facility, MetaCentrum supercomputing facilities, 4 in-houses servers and BSL2 level laboratory. The laboratory is well equipped for high-throughput processing setup and in-house sequencing (Illumina MiSeq). More info can be found on https://sites.google.com/view/novakovalab .

Please submit your application electronically. The applications will be reviewed as they are received and interview calls scheduled accordingly. For further enquiries and to apply, please contact Eva Novakova ([email protected] ).