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@psb.ugent.be for more information and/or to apply. To apply, please send a detailed CV and motivation letter before August 15th. -- ================================================================== 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@psb.vib-ugent.be http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be ==================================================================