Research Scientist (Metagenomics)

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. Join an ERC funded research project investigating the inheritance and evolution of human associated microbes. 

The role: 

How do gut bacteria colonize their human hosts? How do they then persist for decades in the same host? How many of the hundreds of gut bacterial species are inherited in families? To answer these, the group received an ERC Starter grant (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/948219). We will dissect the microbial genetics enabling human long-term colonization on a novel family centric cohort available to the project.

High-resolution metagenomics will be used to track microbes - eukaryotic and prokaryotic - across individuals and in families and determine ecoevolutionary processes underlying the gut microbiome. This will include closely working with metagenomic bioinformatics (assembly, genome binning, gene predictions) and combining this with population genetics and/or network inference algorithms. This work will contribute to enabling personalized & data driven medicine and developing the next generation of human gut microbiome treatments. 

The environment:

The Hildebrand group 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.
https://falk.science 

The ideal candidate: 

The applicant needs to hold a PhD (or equivalent) with a background and/or interest in at least one of the following subjects:

- Microbiomes & biodiversity
- Metagenomics & patient cohorts
- Ecology & evolution

Some exposure to statistics and programming languages (either R, python, Perl, C++, or equivalent) is expected. Specialized skills will be taught and developed through mentorship and collaborations. 

Additional information:

Salary on appointment will be within the range £33,050 to £40,750 per annum depending on qualifications and experience. This is a full-time post for a contract of 24 months, potentially extensible for a further 12 months. 

For further information and details of how to apply, please visit our website https://jobs.quadram.ac.uk or contact the Human Resources team on 01603 450814 quoting reference 1004440. 

Interviews will be held in early May 2023. 

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. 

About the Quadram Institute: 

The Quadram Institute is a 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. This is one of Europe’s largest centres of life sciences and home of the John Innes Centre and The Earlham Institute. (https://quadram.ac.uk/). 

The closing date for applications will be 25 April 2023 

The Quadram Institute Bioscience is a registered charity (No. 1058499) and is an Equal Opportunities Employer.

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