The Royal Belgian Museum for Natural Sciences is looking for a:
Post doctoral researcher
April 2014 – February 2018
Summary :
The successful candidate will work in the framework of a 4 year project
financed by the Belgian science policy, Belspo. Belspo Brain project:
“Behavioral and genomic aspects of cichlid speciation; GENBAS –
GENetic Basis for Speciation”. The proposal’s two main objectives are
to characterize the genomic differentiation that drives the speciation
process, and to verify whether/and to what extent the same genomic
changes are involved in to maintain the ‘integrity’ of the gene
pools of the resulting sister species.
We intend to address this question through a dual approach: one that
compares the genome wide differentiation within and between sister
species, and one that explores the genetic basis of the behavioural
aspects (display and acoustic signalling during courtship) that allow
female fishes to differentiate between con-specific and hetero-specific
males. For this purpose, we have selected the Lake Tanganyika cichlid
genus Ophthalmotilapia. More specifically, our experimental design
involves the combination of four studies: (1) to explore behavioural
and acoustic aspects of mate pairing during con- and hetero-specific
interactions among species; (2) to investigate differential gene
expression in the female brain associated with pairing behaviour
during con- and hetero-specific interactions; (3) to elucidate genetic
differences within and among relatively recently diverged and hybridizing
species at a genome-wide level; and (4) to examine whether the part of
the genome that is expressed during mate recognition in the brains of the
female cichlids correspond with one or more of the genomic areas with
increased differentiation within or among these species. The project
is a collaboration between Erik Verheyen (RBINS), Jos Snoeks (RMCA),
Jeroen Van Houdt (KULeuven), Eric Parmentier & Pascal Poncin (ULiège).
Tasks :
- Coordination of the project: organisation of meetings,
coordinate the different studies of the project partners,
reporting, keeping time lines
- Implementation of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) methods:
Genotyping by Sequencing, RNA sequencing
- Data-analysis NGS data, Integration of behavioral and
accoustic data with genomic results
- Supervision and co-operation with partner researchers,
students
- Publication of results
Profile :
Education : PhD in sciences: Biology, Biotechnology, Genomics
Experience : 3-10 years of experience in independent research, experience
in genetic/genomic research
Technical competences :
Experienced in molecular genetics: (Sanger & NGS) sequencing, microsatellites
Experienced in NGS methods and NGS data analysis
Experienced with population genetics and phylogeographic methods
Languages: Dutch and/or French, English
Generic competences :
Independent, people management, project management, coordination,
co-operation, good interpersonal skills, prepared to travel if required
Extra :
Project coordination
Programming skills (perl, python, R, …)
Experience working with fish experiments
Offer:
Full time position (maximum 4 years)
Remuneration according to education and experience
Free public transport (in Belgium) between your place of residence and
the Institute
Application
Send (in a single pdf file) an application letter and your CV with
contact information of two references before March 31st 2014 to:
Erik.verheyen@natuurwetenschappen.be
