Employer: Monash University

Closing date: January 5th 2020; 11:55pm AEDT

Brief position description: An exciting opportunity exists for a post-doctoral researcher to join the Department of Infectious Diseases at Central Clinical School, Monash University. The appointee will use computational biology approaches to investigate the metabolic diversity of Klebsiella pneumoniae, a World Health Organization priority pathogen. K. pneumoniae is a ubiquitous bacterium that can inhabit a broad range of hosts and environmental niches. It is also extremely diverse with access to a gene-pool of more than 100,000 genes, at least a third of which are predicted to encode proteins with metabolic functions. This is of particular interest because metabolic capacity is considered a key driver of niche preference and the ability to cause disease in different hosts or body sites. However, little is known about metabolic variation in this species. In collaboration with researchers at the University of California San Diego (USA) and Institut Pasteur (France) we aim to address this knowledge gap and develop a first-of-a-kind population metabolism framework for K. pneumoniae. The appointee will contribute directly to this project by combining the power of large-scale comparative genomics analyses with state-of-the-art genome-scale metabolic modelling.

This genomics-focused position is suitable for an individual with strong undergraduate and graduate training in a relevant area of biology (molecular biology, genetics, microbiology, biochemistry, evolutionary biology) as well as demonstrated skills and/or training in a quantitative discipline (statistics, computing, mathematics). The ideal candidate will have experience working with high-throughput genomic data from bacteria. Previous experience in genome-scale metabolic modelling is helpful but not required.

The appointee will be supervised by Dr Kelly Wyres and Professor Kathryn Holt, and based within the laboratory of Professor Holt (http://holtlab.net) in the Department of Infectious Diseases, located at the Alfred Medical Research and Education Precinct. The appointee will interact with research scientists, students and administrative staff of Monash University; and collaborate closely with other members of the laboratory and international collaborators. They will also have the opportunity to attend overseas conferences.

Job website: http://careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/job/601348/research-fellow

Contact name: Kelly Wyres

Contact email: kelly.wyres@monash.edu