Postdoc in barley genomics

Barley

We are looking for a highly motivated and dynamic postdoc for a postdoctoral researcher for two years, starting on 1 February 2023. The postdoc will join a large European Commission funded project, BarleyMicroBreed. They will be responsible for assembling the genomes of 50 barley varieties using both short (Illumina) and ultra-long reads (PacBio).

The deadline to apply via this link is November 13 2022. 

The start date is February 1st 2023.

This project will be hosted within The Plant Hologenome group led by Assistant Professor Christopher Barnes. The group is newly established but operates within the Centre for Evolutionary Hologenomics (CEH). Together, we integrate genomic, microbiome and environmental data together (holistic analyses) in order to fully understand the host’s phenotype. Since this area is so expansive, we rely upon collaboration to for projects to succeed, and we therefore emphasise this within a work environment. The CEH is a diverse and vibrant environment, with researchers having various different research and personal histories. Furthermore, within the CEH we have access to world class molecular laboratories (for data production) and a new custom-built server for processing massive -omics era datasets.

We are generating genomic data from 50 carefully curated barley lines. Your job will be to perform hybrid assemblies on data for these. It is hoped a pipeline can be established so that the high-performance computing cluster can process genomes in parallel, allowing for the candidate to explore genomes in ways that best interest them. Assembled genomes will be used within the BarleyMicroBreed project, a large project with 12 different partners from 10 different countries. The candidate will be fully integrated into this network of PhD and postdocs, attending annual meetings etc. Additionally, they will have a chance to work closely with another postdoctoral researcher studying the microbiome of these 50 barley lines in various different locations and environmental stresses.