About the Project
About the project
The project
Microbiomes, communities of microorganisms, are essential for human wellbeing and society. Microbiome alterations in humans, animals or plants are known to lead to diseases, while naturally selected industrial microbiomes allowed us to produce widely consumed food products, such as bread, beer, wine, soy sauce, kimchi, etc.
The project aims to bring together cutting-edge systems and synthetic biology tools with the study of ancient DNA in order to understand better the role and evolution of microbiomes, shed light on ancient civilizations like Egypt, Greek or Roman and develop novel technologies to push the boundaries of archaeological research.
The candidate will have the opportunity to travel to archaeological sites, present at international research conferences and to collaborate with renowned researches across the globe, in particular with Harvard University and the Natural History Museum. The project is expected to lead to high impact publications and push the current limits in this fascinating research field.
The skills
The candidate will use bioinformatic and computational tools together with experimental approaches for DNA extraction and the generation of DNA libraries. The candidate will develop a novel experimental and computational framework to study ancient microbiomes.
The group
The lab of Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro (www.rlalab.org) is working at the interface between synthetic biology and metabolic engineering with applications in biotechnology, biomedicine and biomaterials. This is a dynamic, multicultural and ambitions growing research group and the candidate will have the opportunity to collaborate with other members of the group as well participate in the supervision of masters and undergraduate students. The group collaborate closely with other researchers at Imperial College London and beyond, which offers the candidate a great opportunity to expand their network and horizons.
The place
Located in central London, Imperial College London is consistently ranked in the top twenty universities in the world and is known worldwide for its excellence in the field of synthetic biology. Our lab is part of the Department of Bioengineering and belongs to the Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology (http://www.imperial.ac.uk/synthetic-biology/centre/).
Attributes of suitable candidates
Applicants are expected to hold, or about to obtain, a minimum upper second class undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in life sciences or humanities related subjects. A Masters degree in a relevant subject and/or experience is desirable.
A successful candidate should have a good understanding of molecular biology and ideally will be fascinated by history and ancient civilizations. Experiences in laboratory work or bioinformatics (e.g. Next Generation Sequencing) would be desirable. Candidates with a solid profile in history/archaeology with interest in cutting edge sequencing technologies are also encouraged to get in touch. Most importantly, the applicant should be well-motivated and open-minded, able to thrive in s a multi-disciplinary research environment.
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