PhD Position in Prediction of Bacterial Pathogenicity, Denmark

PhD Position in Prediction of Bacterial Pathogenicity, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark

A PhD position is available at the newly established Center for Genomic Epidemiology (CGE) at Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, DTU Systems Biology.

Within a few years, the price for whole-genome sequencing of bacterial genomes will have become so low that it is no longer a limiting factor. Rather, the challenges will lay in how to assemble, process and handle the large amount of data in a standardized way that will make the information useful for diagnosis, outbreak investigation, source tracing and surveillance. It is the aim of CGE to provide the bioinformatics and scientific foundation for future web-based solutions, including developing tools for extraction of biologically and epidemiologically relevant information from the sequence data. It is a key objective of the PhD project to develop methods for predicting, based on the sequence data, an organism’s potential as a pathogen or a non-pathogen. Initial focus will be on well characterized pathogens like E. coli, Salmonella and S. aureus, but later the developed procedures should be expanded to other organisms.

Qualifications:

• MSc degree in bioinformatics or in life science (e.g. microbiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, biomedical engineering) combined with documented experience within bioinformatics.
• Excellent programming skills. Experience in Perl or Python or a similar programming language.
• Familiar with working on UNIX platforms.
• Able to work independently and to plan and carry out complicated tasks, while also being part of a large and dynamic group.
• Good communication skills in English, both written and spoken.
• Interest in microbiology and global disease control.

Salary and appointment terms:
The salary and appointment terms are consistent with the current rules for PhD degree students. The period of employment is 3 years.

Further information :
Further information may be obtained from Professor Ole Lund (+45 45 25 24 25), or from center administrator Dorthe Kjærsgaard (+ 45 45 25 24 77).
You can read more about DTU Systems Biology on www.bio.dtu.dk/English.aspx.

Application:
We must have your online application by 6 September 2010. Please open the link “apply for this job online” and fill in the application form and attach your application, CV and information about academic grades.

Further scholarship details: