6‑year funded Postdoc and Bioinformatician positions to work on genomes of bats and other mammals
The Hiller Lab at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt, Germany has an opening for a Postdoc and a Bioinformatician to work on our BATPROTECT project to investigate the genomic basis of long healthspans, disease resistance, and viral tolerance in bats.
BATPROTECT
is a 6‑year funded ERC synergy grant project that will use bats as natural models of healthy aging and disease tolerance to elucidate the molecular mechanisms behind bats’ exceptional longevity and resistance to viral and age-related diseases. BATPROTECT brings together a team of global leaders in bat biology and ageing (Emma Teeling, Dublin), bat immunology and virology (Linfa Wang, Singapore), evolution and genomics (Michael Hiller, Frankfurt), and ageing model organisms (Bjoern Schumacher, Cologne) that will jointly investigate aging and immune responses in bats from the wild and captive colonies, discover genes with evolutionary importance for longevity and disease resistance, and functionally validate longevity and immune regulators in stem and differentiated cells of bats and model organisms, with the ultimate goal to uncover new directions to improve human healthspan and disease outcome.
The Project
Our goal is to uncover the genomic basis of exceptional healthspans and disease tolerance in bats, understand the evolution of these traits, and
identify key molecular targets for functional validation.
The Bioinformatician will assemble reference-quality genomes of ~150 bat species, for which we are currently generating PacBio HiFi and HiC data. For a few focal species, we will also generate a complete T2T assembly. The Bioinformatician will also analyze transcriptomics data that we are sequencing in parallel for all target bat species, use this data and our homology-based methods (TOGA) to annotate the new genomes, generate whole genome alignments of bats and other mammals, and support the BATPROTECT project.
The Postdoc will contribute to analyzing these genomic and transcriptomic resources. Projects include comparative genomic screens to identify key adaptations in coding and non-coding genes as well as differences in gene expression patterns across the bat phylogeny, associating genomic and transcriptomics changes with longevity and viral reservoir traits, identifying novel bat genes, and investigating the evolutionary history of endogenized viral elements.
Both new hires will work closely with other members of the BATPROTECT team, the Hiller lab, and other Bat1K collaborators. We also offer exchanges with the other BATPROTECT labs and yearly retreats with all project members.
We provide
- cutting-edge computational (large HPC clusters, genome browser) and lab infrastructure to sequence and analyze genomes
- flexible working hours – opportunities for mobile working – leave of absence due to family reasons (certified by “auditberufundfamilie”) – parent-child office – annual special payment – company pension scheme – Senckenberg badge for free entry in museums in Frankfurt. – leave of 30 days/year
- Frankfurt is a vibrant and highly international city at the heart of Europe that combines a skyscraper skyline with ample parks and green areas. The Economist 2022 index ranked Frankfurt among the top 10 most livable cities worldwide.
How to apply
More information about these positions and how to apply can be found at https://tbg.senckenberg.de/hillerlab/jobs/
The initial application deadlines are middle of November, but we invite applications until the positions have been filled.
For more information about the lab and the project, please contact Prof. Dr. Michael Hiller (michael.hiller@senckenberg.de) or visit the lab webpage https://tbg.senckenberg.de/hillerlab/.
An overview of our publications is available here: https://tbg.senckenberg.de/hillerlab/publications/.