Postdoctoral Fellow Position in the Barrick Lab

Earliest Start Date: June 2011
Status: OPEN
Posted March, 16, 2011

A position is open for a postdoctoral researcher to study bacterial evolvability in the Barrick Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. This individual will join in an NIH-funded research project to systematically investigate how different kinds of mutations affect the evolutionary potential of Escherichia coli in laboratory evolution experiments. Research will involve recovering genotypes that eventually prevail over competitors of higher fitness because they are more evolvable by chronicling mutation dynamics in evolution experiments using deep sequencing, high-throughput genotyping, and deletion and microsatellite markers. Related work will include dissecting mutational pathways with systems biology tools to understand why particular mutations alter genetic architectures in ways that lead to evolvability differences and designing genetic screens to select for increased genomic instability. There are additional opportunities to develop computational methods for analyzing genome re-sequencing data and simulating evolving populations of bacteria as part of this work.

Interested candidates should have a Ph.D. in microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, evolutionary biology, or computer science and a willingness to participate in interdisciplinary research.

Applicants should send a letter describing their scientific interests and a CV containing contact information for at least three references to <jbarrick@cm.utexas.edu>.