Institution
VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research
Open Date
October 15, 2021
Location
Ghent, Belgium

Description
The Data Mining and Modeling for Biomedicine group (headed by Yvan Saeys) at the VIB Center for Inflammation Research and Ghent University is located in the historical city of Ghent, Belgium. The Saeys lab is at the forefront of computational method development in single-cell omics and has a longstanding collaboration with many wet labs in immunology, oncology, and plant biology.  Recently, the lab has started a single-cell facility with advanced access to the newest single-cell multi-omics technologies (scRNA-seq, scATAC-seq, CITE-seq, and spatial proteomics and transcriptomics). A major focus of the lab is to model the dynamics of biological systems and characterize their underlying gene regulatory networks.  To this end, the lab develops new computational machine learning methods to improve the current state-of-the-art.

The successful candidate will be responsible for developing novel methods (including trajectory inference and gene regulatory network inference) on single-cell omics data. The current position is part of a collaboration with BASF, a leading company in the plant biotechnology field, and the lab of Bert De Rybel at the VIB Center of Plant Systems Biology.

Qualifications

• You obtained a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, Computer Science, Physics, Engineering, Bio-engineering, or equivalent.
• Excellent track record in machine learning applied to the field of Bioinformatics
• Solid programming experience is required (Python, R).
• Experience with machine-learning/statistical analysis is required
• Experience with plant research and/or population genetics is a plus.
• Ability to work independently and in a team.

Open Date
September 8, 2021
Deadline
September 30, 2021
Institution
Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University
Location
Leiden, Netherlands

Description
Plant diseases occur everywhere and are one of the major threats to our agriculture. Understanding how disease resistance works is one of the long-term missions in the newly established group led by Dr. Ding, and also the key to protecting plant health.

The PhD project will focus on investigating gene regulatory mechanisms involved in immunity activated by intracellular nucleotide-binding leucine-rich-repeat (NB-LRR) receptors (NLRs). This research will continue on the recent discovery that NLR-activated transcription in-part potentiated the cell-surface receptor-mediated immunity (Ngou et al. Nature 2021; Ding et al. JXB 2021).

Qualifications

• A master's degree in biology or related area
• A strong curiosity in biology with an interes in plant sciences
• A clear motivation in taking a PhD career and understanding of the commitment
• Profound theoretical knowledge on and experience with molecular biology
• Basic knowledge of chemistry, physics, mathematics and stasistics
• Affinity with using computers and porficient skills with commonly used software
• Good orginization habits and time management skills
• Good communication and proficient English skills (both written and spoken)