[BBC] 2 PhD and 1 Postdoc position at Van de Peer Lab (VIB/UGent)

[Thomas Van Parys]

The following positions are now open in the Van de Peer Lab at VIB/Ghent
University, Belgium (http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/), in relation
to the ERC Advanced Grant Double-Up, on the importance of gene and
genome duplications for natural and artificial organism populations.

2 PhD positions
1 Postdoc position

The long-term establishment of ancient organisms that have undergone
whole genome duplications has been exceedingly rare. On the other hand,
tens of thousands of now-living species, both plants and animals, are
polyploid, and contain multiple copies of their genome.  The apparent
paucity of ancient genome duplications and the existence of many species
that are currently polyploid provide an interesting and fascinating
enigma. A question that remains to be answered is whether these older
genome duplications have survived by coincidence or whether they could
survive only because they did occur, or were selected for, at very
specific times, for instance during major ecological upheavals and
periods of extinction. We hope to address these questions at different
levels through 1) the analysis of whole plant genome sequence data and
2) the in silico modeling and evolution of artificial gene regulatory
networks to mimic the genomic consequences of genome doubling and how
this may affect network structure, redundancy, rewiring, and dosage
balance. Furthermore, we aim at using simulated robotic models running
on artificial gene regulatory networks in complex and challenging
environments to evaluate how both natural and artificial organism
populations can potentially benefit from gene and genome duplications
for adaptation, survival, and evolution in general.

DOUBLE-UP is a truly interdisciplinary proposal that will open up new
horizons and perspectives for different fields of research, from
bioinformatics and systems biology over comparative and evolutionary
biology, to network modeling and evolutionary robotics.

We are looking for 2 highly motivated PhD students and 1 highly
motivated Postdoc to help us achieve these ambitious goals.  A strong
(bio)informatics background, good programming skills, and previous
modeling/simulation experience are all required. A background in
evolutionary biology and population biology is strongly preferred.  Some
interest in evolutionary robotics and artificial life is an advantage.
Applicants should be proficient in English, both speaking and writing.
The positions are available starting October 1st, 2013, with funding
secured for at least four years.

Contact Yves Van de Peer at yves.vandepeer at psb.ugent.be for more
information and/or to apply.  To apply, please send a detailed CV and
motivation letter before August 15th.


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Thomas Van Parys
Tel:+32 (0)9 331 36 95                        fax:+32 (0)9 3313809
VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology, Ghent University
Technologiepark 927, 9052 Gent, BELGIUM
thomas.vanparys at psb.vib-ugent.be    http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be
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