Employer: Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM)

Closing date: 30 September

Brief position description: Calling for Systems Biology PhD applications to join the new “Health and Disease” theme of the Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology (CTBMB) and Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM), at James Cook University (Cairns, Australia).

Bioinformatics and Systems Biology projects opportunities exist in a range of infectious and chronic diseases that affect the tropics, such as tuberculosis, malaria, dengue, and diabetes as well as ongoing national and international collaborations in neuroscience and malaria. Systems Biology aims to better understand human disease using a combination of high-throughput technology (such as DNA/RNA sequencing, proteomics etc.) and bioinformatics. Projects are available in pure bioinformatics/systems biology, utilising and developing bioinformatics/systems biology/statistics/machine learning methods as well as joint wet-lab/dry-lab projects through excellent cross-cutting co-supervision.

Specific project opportunities exist for:

1) Development of bioinformatics methods for untangling disruptive signalling in neurological disease (collaboration with Dr Mark Graham; Children's Medical Research Institute)

2) Establishment of host-pathogen interaction bioinformatics platforms and methods for simultaneous analysis of host and pathogen transcriptomics (collaboration with Dr Firth)

3) Multi-omics bioinformatics of BCG vaccinated and Mtb-infected children (collaboration with Dr Kuptz, TB Immunology Group)

4) Systems immunology and multi-omics approaches to understand protective immunity to human malaria (collaboration with Prof Doolan and Dr Wise). This is supported by an AITHM Scholarship and details about this project are available here (closes, 13th September): https://www.aithm.jcu.edu.au/phd-stipend-scholarship/

Supervisor contacts:

Dr Ashley Waardenberg – Research Fellow (Bioinformatics), Theme Leader, JCU Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology https://research.jcu.edu.au/portfolio/ashley.waardenberg/
Ashley.Waardenberg@jcu.edu.au; (61-7) 4232 2046

Professor Denise Doolan – Professorial Research Fellow (Molecular Immunology), AITHM Deputy Director; Director of JCU Centre for Molecular Therapeutics https://research.jcu.edu.au/portfolio/denise.doolan/
denise.doolan@jcu.edu.au; (61-7) 4232 1492

Dr Ingrid Wise – Research Fellow (Molecular Immunology) https://research.jcu.edu.au/portfolio/ingrid.wise/
ingrid.wise@jcu.edu.au

Dr Andreas Kupz – Senior Research Fellow, Group Leader - Tuberculosis Immunology, Centre for Molecular Therapeutics
https://research.jcu.edu.au/portfolio/andreas.kupz/
andreas.kupz@jcu.edu.au; (61-7) 4232 2048

Dr Cadhla Firth – Hot North Career Development Fellow (pathogen genomics)
cadhla.firth@jcu.edu.au

Job website: http://www.jcu.edu.au/graduate-research-school/candidates/postgraduate-research-scholarships

Contact name: Ashley Waardenberg

Contact email: ashley.waardenberg@jcu.edu.au