PhD fellowship on Behavioural Hologenomics at the GLOBE Institute

We are looking for a highly motivated and dynamic candidate to fill a 3 year PhD studentship to work on behavioural hologenomics at the Centre for Evolutionary Hologenomics, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen.

Our group and research
The Centre for Evolutionary Hologenomics was recently funded by the Danish Basic Research Foundation to develop and implement state of the art ‘omics and associated computational techniques, to address through experimental and theoretical research, four key themes underscoring life on earth. Specifically, these are: What is the relationship between a host’s genome and the functional and taxonomic makeup of its associated microbial metagenome? Does this relationship explain ongoing ecological and evolutionary processes in the host? Could this relationship provide an alternate explanation to some of life’s big transitions? And, how have we humans exploited this relationship? The Centre is embedded within the GLOBE Institute, that is part of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. The Institute’s main purpose is to address basic scientific questions through interdisciplinary approaches. The institute operates at the intersection of natural sciences, medical sciences and the humanities.

Project description

The gut microbiome and brain axis covers the study of a host and its associated gut microorganisms; how they manage to communicate and affect the brain. Thus far, the gut microbiome is known to influence host behaviour and health in several model organisms, such as C. elegans, Drosophila, mice and rats. However to what extent, particularly how and when, is not well understood. Moreover, the role of host genome variation in modulating this response is currently unexplored as well. The focus of this project will be to elucidate further how the gut microbiome influences host behaviour using several different mammal species (e.g. mice, foxes) as model organisms. We expect that mice will be used as a model to study the effect of microbes on dominance within subpopulations of 4-5 individuals. To assess the link between the gut microbiome and dominance in mice, they will be exposed to changes of extrinsic and intrinsic factors during the experiment – for instance temperature increase or decrease, starvation and feces transplantation among dominant and submissive mice. The behaviour of foxes will focus on how microbes vary in different tame or aggressive populations. Ultimately, this project serves a pioneering possibility to study the link between the gut microbiome and behaviour in mice and foxes, respectively, and explore the role of host genome in relation to this.

This PhD fellowship, supervised by Prof Tom Gilbert, Assoc Prof Antton Alberdi and Dr Ostaizka Aizpurua, aims to use a hologenomic approach to address the question as to how the gut microbiome affect host behaviour in mice and foxes, respectively, and what the impact is of the host genome in this regard. Specifically, the candidate would generate combined genomic and metagenomic data from mainly feces of mice and foxes, which would then lead to an integration of this data into a hologenomic framework and novel understanding of the gut microbiome-brain-axis.

Principal supervisor isProf Tom Gilbert, Centre for Evolutionary Hologenomics, the GLOBE Institute, [email protected], +45 23 71 25 19

Start: 1st July 2020

Duration: 3 years as a PhD student

Job description
Your key tasks as a PhD student at SUND are:

• Carry through an independent research project under supervision

• Complete PhD courses or other equivalent education corresponding to approx. 30 ECTS points
• Participate in active research environments including a stay at another research team
• Obtain experience with teaching or other types of dissemination related to your PhD project
• Teach and disseminate your knowledge
• Write a PhD thesis on the grounds of your project

Key criteria for the assessment of applicants
Applicants must have qualifications corresponding to a master’s degree related to the subject area of the project e.g. evolutionary genomics and microbial ecology. In this regard they must have demonstrable expertise with the generation of NGS based datasets, using for example Illumina or BGISeq technologies. They must also have prior experience in cleaning and analyzing NGS data, using server-based software. Example analyses are using such data to undertake population and comparative genomic analyses. They must also have prior expertise in metagenomics and other fields of omics, such as transcriptomics.

Other criteria of relevance are:

• The final assessment of their MSc thesis
• Professional qualifications relevant to the PhD project
• Previous publications
• Relevant work experience, including in metagenomics and genomics data generation
• Other professional activities
• Curious mind-set with a strong interest in microbiology, genomics, animal behaviour, evolutionary biology and hologenomics
• Language skills

Place of employment

The place of employment is at the GLOBE Institute, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in dynamic and international research environment. Our research facilities include laboratories for the preparation of genomic scale datasets from modern and historic materials, as well as computational servers for the analysis of such data.

Terms of employment
The employment as PhD fellow is full time and for 3 years.

It is conditioned upon the applicant’s success­ful enrolment as a PhD student at the Graduate School at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project formulated by the applicant.

The PhD study must be completed in accordance with The Ministerial Order on the PhD programme (2013) and the Faculty’s rules on achieving the degree. Salary, pension and terms of employment are in accordance with the agree­ment between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State. Depending on seniority, the monthly salary begins around 26.755 DKK /approx. 3.567 EUR (April 2018-level) plus pension.

Questions
For specific information about the PhD fellowship, please contact the principal supervisor.

General information about PhD study at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences is available at the Graduate School’s website: https://healthsciences.ku.dk/phd/guidelines/

Application procedure
Your application must be submitted electronically by clicking ‘Apply now’ below. The application must include the following documents in PDF format:

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page)

2. CV incl. education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position

3. Master of Science diploma and transcript of records. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor will do

4. Publication list (if possible)

Application deadline: 22 March 2020, 23.59pm CET

We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process
After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor.

The assessor makes a non-prioritized assessment of the academic qualifications and experience with respect to the above-mentioned area of research, techniques, skills and other requirements listed in the advertisement.

Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.

You can read about the recruitment process at http://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

The applicant will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences comprises approximately 7500 students, 1500 PhD students and 3200 employees. The Faculty advances the field of health sciences through its core activities: research, teaching, knowledge sharing and communication. With basic research fields ranging from molecular studies to studies of society, the Faculty contributes to a healthy future through its graduates, research findings and inventions benefitting patients and the community. The University of Copenhagen wishes to reflect the surrounding community and invites all regardless of personal background to apply for the position.

Kilde: Jobnet.dk