University of Oslo PhD Research Fellowship in Genomics, Norway

University of Oslo PhD Research Fellowship in Genomics

Position as PhD Research fellow available at the Department of Biosciences.

The fellowship will be for a period of 3 years, with no compulsory work or for a period of 4 years, with 25 % compulsory work (teaching responsibilities at the department) contingent on the qualifications of the candidate and the teaching needs of the department. Starting date no later than 01.10.2016.

No one can be appointed for more than one fixed-term period at the same institution.

Job/ project description

The PhD fellow will be appointed on the project entitled "Evolutionary and functional importance of simple repeats in the genome" funded by the Research council of Norway through the FRIPRO program and lead by Professor Kjetill S Jakobsen. The candidate will be working in an internationally leading research group recently awarded Frontier Research status.

The project focuses on the functional modulation of regulatory mechanisms affecting the phenotype by variations in simple trinucleotide repeats residing inside (coding) and in the vicinity (or in introns) of genes. Specifically, we would like to test the hypothesis that hypervariable coding/regulatory repeats are promoting the ability of a species or population to adapt to a changing environment. To address this we will use Atlantic cod and Arabidopsis as model systems. The project is cross-disciplinary and will utilize genomic, bioinformatics, statistics and experimental approaches and the appointed PhD candidate will work in a larger team and in close connection with an additional PhD that will be hired concurrent with this position.

The PhD candidate will investigate the genomic architecture of repeats and repeat-length variation in individuals of Atlantic cod and Arabidopsis using PacBio long read technology. A particular focus will be on simple repeats within or in the vicinity of genes. Data from the Aqua Genome Project and the 1001 Arabidopsis genome project will also be investigated. Further, trans-generational variation in repeat length will be addressed. A goal will be to obtain a number of candidate genes containing repeat length variation as a response to selectional regimes. Another goal will be to build models for how repeat length variation within the protein affects structural properties.

The project as a whole consists of three interconnected work packages. The successful candidate will work on the work package entitled "Genomic repeat architecture in Arabidopsis and Atlantic cod and length variation in simple repeats" led by professor Kjetill S Jakobsen. The project has international collaborators and research visits to collaborating partners will be encouraged.

Requirements/qualifications

The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences has a strategic ambition of being a leading research faculty. Candidates for these fellowships will be selected in accordance with this, and expected to be in the upper segment of their class with respect to academic credentials.

Applicants must hold a Master's degree or equivalent in biology, molecular biology or bioinformatics/biostatistics and have experience with bioinformatics methods for analysis of high throughput sequencing genome data. The applicant must be qualified for the doctoral program within these disciplines. The successful applicant should preferably have experience in using bioinformatics and computational methods in a comparative or evolutionary setting. Experience with programs for analyses of genomic repeats will be particularly useful.

Candidates without a Master's degree have until 30 June, 2016 to complete the final exam.

The purpose of the fellowship is research training leading to the successful completion of a PhD degree.

The fellowship requires admission to the PhD program at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The application to the PhD program must be submitted to the department no later than two months after taking up the position. For more information see:

http://www.uio.no/english/research/phd/

http://www.mn.uio.no/english/research/doctoral-degree-and-career/phd-programme/index.html

A good command of English is required.

Salary:

Position code 1017, Pay grade: 50 - 57 (NOK 430 500 – 483 700 per year)

The application must include:

Application letter
CV (summarizing education, positions and academic work - scientific publications)
Copies of educational certificates, and transcript of records
Documentation of English proficiency
List of publications and academic work that the applicant wishes to be considered by the evaluation committee
Names and contact details of 2-3 references (name, relation to applicant, e-mail and telephone number)

Foreign applicants are advised to attach an explanation of their University’s grading system. Please remember that all documents should be in English or a Scandinavian language.

In accordance with the University of Oslo’s equal opportunities policy, we invite applications from all interested individuals regardless of gender or ethnicity.

UiO has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results a.o.