3-year postdoctoral position in bacteriophages and antimicrobial resistance 100%

We are excited to announce the opportunity to join our team at the Gómez-Sanz Lab within a Starting Grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) on: “Range of influence of staphylococcal bacteriophages on bacterial populations”.
While bacteriophages are the most abundant entities on Earth and the most prolific bacterial killers, antimicrobial resistant bacterial infections continue increasing worldwide. In fact, antimicrobial resistance represents one of the major global health problems worldwide. Contradictory enough, bacteriophages can provide bacteria with adaptive features to enhance virulence or to better adapt to harsh conditions. This double-edged sword encumbers bacteriophages as major actors in bacterial evolution and adaptation. This project builds on the necessity to solve this important paradigm in Biology encompassed with the urge to graze innovative actions to tackle the antimicrobial resistance pandemic.

3-year postdoctoral position in bacteriophages and antimicrobial resistance

This postdoctoral project aims at the development of pioneering methodological strategies to visualize transduction dynamics of natural systems. Using a unique phage-host interaction network (1), the postdoctoral fellow will experimentally contribute to the selection of scrutinized phage-bacteria transductions system candidates. She/he will conduct synthetic biology and CRISPR/Cas assisted strategies coupled with last resource visualization technologies (such as fluorescence microscopy, bioluminescence) to visualize and track the degree to which environmental phages are able to spread antimicrobial resistance genes to diverse natural staphylococcal populations.

Qualifications:

• Ph.D. in microbiology, molecular biology, or a related field
• Extensive experience with bacteriophage research and/or phage-host interactions
• Proficiency in molecular biology techniques (e.g., PCR, cloning, sequencing, CRISPR-Cas)
• Skills in genomics, bioinformatics analysis, graphical and statistical software
• Experience in using various microscopy techniques and/or flow cytometry
• Strong background in antimicrobial resistance mechanisms is an asset
• Excellent scientific writing and communication skills
• Demonstrated ability to publish in peer-reviewed journals
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to work effectively independently as well as in highly collaborative research environment
• Experience in mentoring students is preferred,
• Willingness to supervise and mentor students is requested

Please send us your online application including CV, motivation letter and two reference letters as a single PDF file via email to: E-Mail schreiben. For project specifics, please contact Prof. Elena Gómez-Sanz (E-Mail schreiben).
Application deadline is 20th June 2024. Earliest starting date is 1st November 2024. Financial support is according to SNF guidelines. The position is fixed to 36 months but has the potential for extension.
We look forward to passionate individuals with a teamwork spirit and ready to make a meaningful impact!