Postdoc Positions in Insect symbiosis

 

Hypša and Nováková groups, Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice announces openings of a postdoc positions in the field of insect symbiosis starting in May 2022.

The position is funded till the end of 2024 with possible extension. The selected candidate will be involved in the projects entitled Microbiomes in blood-feeding insects: diversity and dynamics of genomic processes funded by Czech Science Foundation. The broad ecological range of bacteria within these microbiomes (from pathogens to obligate symbionts) and their diversity points to a permanent flux of bacteria from the environment and their ongoing transition to symbiosis. The questions proposed in this project are: What is the gene pool available for the bacterial associations with blood-feeding insects? In what degree does the host ecology determine the availability and source of bacteria entering the associations? What is the role of horizontal gene transfer and mobile elements in the microbiome formation? To address this, we take advantage of several model groups of insects (sucking and chewing lice, Cimicidae, Triatominae, Hippoboscidae).

The project offers collaboration with several US partnering laboratories, including funds for annual short-term research visits. Long-term scientific visits are supported under the general scheme of doctoral programs at the Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia. The group enjoys highly diverse international environment, and its members are guaranteed direct access to Confocal Microscopy facility, Electron Microscopy facility, MetaCentrum supercomputing facilities, 4 in-house servers and BSL2 level laboratory. The laboratory is well equipped for high-throughput processing setup and in-house sequencing with Illumina MiSeq.

What do we offer :

• • attractive research in parasitology
  • possibility of further education according to the individual motivation
  • regular participation in foreign conferences
  • possibility of internships abroad in cooperating laboratories
  • 5 weeks of holidays, discounted mobile and banking services, MS Office for personal use, language courses

Requirements:

• PhD degree in evolutionary biology, microbiology, parasitology, entomology, genomics, bioinformatics or related relevant field
• Solid proficiency with standard molecular techniques
• basic knowledge of bash
• excellent English knowledge (written and oral)

Documents to submit

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

 

Please submit your application electronically via e-mail to vacatko@prf.jcu.cz The applications will be reviewed as they are received, and interview calls scheduled accordingly. For further enquiries please directly contact the group PI at vacatko@prf.jcu.cz