WANTED PRE-DOCTORAL CANDIDATE in Bee Hologenomics
A candidate is sought to carry out the Doctoral Thesis entitled "Deconstruction of biomolecular interactions between intestinal microorganisms and honey bees (holobionts), in relation to the immune response, performance and survival of the colony"
This thesis is framed in the European Project “BEEGUARDS: Resilient beekeeping and breeding to safeguard natural genetic resources and pollination services” funded in the call HORIZON-CL6-2022-BIODIV-02-two-stage (2023-2026). The project contemplates financing for a pre-doctoral student for a renewable year. In addition, in the 2024 call, a 4-year Predoctoral Scholarship (UPV/EHU or Basque Government) will be requested.
During the thesis, the student will join the Applied Genomics and Bioinformatics research group with more than 20 years of dedication to the genetic study of the honey bee (Andone Estonba Professor of Genetics, ORCID: 0000-0003-2851-5201). The student will be guided by a postdoctoral researcher involved in the project, and will have the opportunity to collaborate with researchers from prestigious European institutes and universities, which will facilitate stays abroad and obtain an international thesis mention. The thesis will be supervised by Dr. Iratxe Zarraonaindia (specialized in microbial ecology, ORCID: 0000-0002-0615-0187) and Dr. Melanie Parejo (specialized in bee population genomics, ORCID: 0000-0002-7248-0424).
SHORT DESCRIPTION:
The Varroa destructor mite and its associated viruses generate large annual losses within the beekeeping sector worldwide. To reduce the use of chemical treatments to combat varroa, the main objective of BEEGUARDS is to provide alternative and sustainable solutions based on innovative beekeeping management that favors the resistance of bees to varroa. In the Applied Genomics and Bioinformatics (UPV/EHU) group we will identify the microbiome+genome (holobiome) combinations that favor resilience in bees subject to different environments and management.
WORK TO DO:
- Standardization of laboratory protocols for massive sequencing (NGS) (Hiseq, NovaSeq, PacBio etc.) of microbial communities and their host, the honey bee
- Bioinformatics processing of NGS sequences and integration of omic data and metadata (production, survival and health data)
REQUIREMENTS:
- University Degree in Biology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Environmental Sciences, or similar, obtained in June 2017 or later
- Have completed the research master's degree or be studying it during the 2023 academic year
- Competitive academic record and medium/high level of English
ABILITIES:
- Teamwork skills, proactive attitude, initiative and autonomy
- Previous experience in a molecular laboratory and/or in bioinformatics (Unix, R similar) will be valued.
START DATE: JANUARY 1, 2024. The call will be open until the position is filled.
Interested send CV to iratxe.zarraonaindia@ehu.eus
The BeeGuards project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101082073. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the European Union cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
