Organisation/Company: QIB - Quadram Institute Bioscience
Research Field: Biological sciences, Technology, Computer science, Environmental science, Mathematics
Researcher Profile: Leading Researcher (R4), Established Researcher (R3)
Country: United Kingdom
Application Deadline: 27 Jan 2025 - 21:59 (UTC)
Type of Contract: Permanent
Job Status: Full-time
Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme
Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No
Offer Description
Research Scientist (Metagenomics)
QIB - Quadram Institute Bioscience
Norwich, United Kingdom
Applications are invited for a Research Scientist to join the Laboratory of Dr Hildebrand in the Gut Microbes and Health programme at Quadram Institute Bioscience (QIB), based in Norwich, UK.
Background:
Join an ERC funded research project investigating the inheritance and evolution of human associated microbes. The project will be conducted in a multidisciplinary team at the Quadram & Earlham Institutes, UK, and combine newly established patient cohorts, concomitantly developed wetlab and bioinformatics protocols that enable a unique perspective into microbiomes.
The role:
How do gut bacteria colonize their human hosts and families? How do they then persist for decades in the same host? And how do they evolve and adapt to their unique human host? How do we investigate bacteria with specialized metabolism in microbiomes? The aim for this post is to dissect the microbial genetics enabling human long-term colonization on a novel family centric cohort established in the UK.
High-resolution metagenomics will be used to track microbes - eukaryotic and prokaryotic - across individuals and in families, and determine genes under selection. This will include closely working with metagenomic bioinformatics (assembly, genome binning, gene predictions) and combining this with population genetics and/or network inference algorithms. Thus, exploring microbiomes at unprecedented resolution can resolve eco-evolutionary processes determining resilience and functional plasticity of natural microbiomes.
The environment:
The Hildebrand group (https://falk.science) uses metagenomics to research the diversity, community interactions, and evolution of microbes in communities using custom software solutions. The group has a joint appointment between the Quadram Institute Bioscience and Earlham Institute to bridge data and life science, developing software such as LotuS2 and MATAFILER and pushing the limits of high-resolution metagenomics.
The Norwich Research Park (NRP) UK, hosts 4 BBSRC Institute, > 15 companies, 3,000 researchers and clinicians, 17,000 students. The Quadram Institute is a new interdisciplinary research institute dedicated to understanding how food and microbes interact to promote health and prevent disease. Its mission is to deliver healthier lives through innovation in gut health, microbiology and food. A partnership between Quadram Institute Bioscience, the University of East Anglia, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and BBSRC, it brings together scientists and clinicians in a state-of-the-art building on the NRP, being one Europe’s largest centres for microbiology and life sciences (https://quadram.ac.uk/).
Norwich ranked in the top 10 for UK cities with a beautiful, historical town centre and an active gastropub & coffee aficionado scene.
The ideal candidate:
The applicant needs to hold a PhD (or equivalent) in biology, bioinformatics, computer science or a related discipline with a background and/or interest in at least one of the following subjects:
* Microbiomes & biodiversity;
* Ecology & evolution.
The ideal candidate will have experience in conducting scientific experiments independently, writing papers, presenting work and grant writing. Basic statistics and programming skills (either R, python, Perl, C++, or equivalent) is essential. Specialized skills will be taught and developed through mentorship and collaborations.
Additional information:
Salary on appointment will be within the range £36,720 to £44,000 per annum depending on qualifications and experience. This is a full-time post for a contract of 24 months.
For further information and details of how to apply, please visit our website using the Apply Now button below or contact the Human Resources team on 01603 450814 or nbi.recruitment@nbi.ac.uk quoting reference 1004793. This role meets the criteria for a visa application, and we encourage all qualified candidates to apply. Please contact the Human Resources Team if you have any questions regarding your application or visa options.
We are committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sectors of society. The Institute supports equality of opportunity within the workplace and expects all employees to share and display these values. To support our commitment, we have a range of family, faith and diversity friendly working arrangements to help all staff achieve excellence in their area of work. As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee to offer an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for this vacancy.
The closing date for applications will be 27 January 2025. Interviews will likely be held on 7 February 2024.
The Quadram Institute Bioscience is a registered charity (No. 1058499) and is an Equal Opportunities Employer.
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