ERC-funded Bioinformatician Position

The Hiller Lab at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt,
Germany is looking for a Bioinformatician with a background in genomics
to work on our BATPROTECT project.

*BATPROTECT*
is a 6-year funded ERC synergy grant project that will use bats as
natural models of healthy aging and disease tolerance to elucidate the
molecular mechanisms behind bats' exceptional longevity and resistance
to viral and age-related diseases. BATPROTECT brings together a team
of global leaders in bat biology and ageing (Emma Teeling, Dublin),
bat immunology and virology (Linfa Wang, Singapore), evolution and
genomics (Michael Hiller, Frankfurt), and ageing model organisms
(Bjoern Schumacher, Cologne) that will jointly investigate aging and
immune responses in bats from the wild and captive colonies, discover
genes with evolutionary importance for longevity and disease resistance,
and functionally validate longevity and immune regulators in stem and
differentiated cells of bats and model organisms, with the ultimate goal
to uncover new directions to improve human healthspan and disease outcome.

*The Project*
The Bioinformatician will assemble reference-quality genomes of bat
species, for which we are currently generating PacBio HiFi and HiC
data. For a few focal species, we will also generate a T2T assembly. The
Bioinformatician will also analyze transcriptomics data that we are
sequencing in parallel for all target bat species, use this data and
our homology-based methods (TOGA) to annotate the new genomes, generate
whole genome alignments of bats and other mammals, and support the
BATPROTECT project.  The Bioinformatician will work closely with other
Bioinformaticians in our group, other members of the BATPROTECT team,
and the Hiller lab. We offer exchanges with the other BATPROTECT labs
and yearly retreats with all project members.

*Your Profile*
- A Master-level degree in bioinformatics / computational biology,
genomics or a related area. A PhD degree is an advantage, but not
required.
- Experience in genome assembly, and ideally curating assemblies based
on HiC maps.
- Excellent programming skills in a Linux environment as well as
experience with shell scripting and Unix tools.

*Our Lab*
The mission of our lab is to understand how nature's fascinating
phenotypic diversity has evolved and how it is encoded in the genome. Work
in the lab includes sequencing and assembly of reference-quality genomes,
genome alignment and gene annotation, development and application of
comparative genomic methods to discover differences in genes and gene
expression, and the use of statistical approaches to link phenotypic to
genomic changes.  Our lab is part of TBG (https://tbg.senckenberg.de/)
and the Senckenberg Research Society (https://www.senckenberg.de/en/),
and is based near the city center of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. TBG
provides access to cutting-edge computational (large HPC clusters, genome
browser) and lab infrastructure to sequence and analyze genomes. English
is the working language in our lab.

*We offer*
- Funding is available for 6 years
- Flexible working hours - opportunities for mobile working -
annual special payment - company pension scheme - Senckenberg badge
for free entry in museums in Frankfurt. - leave of 30 days/year
- Frankfurt is a vibrant and highly international city at the heart of
Europe that combines a skyscraper skyline with ample parks and green
areas. The Economist 2022 index ranked Frankfurt among the top 10 most
livable cities worldwide.

*How to apply*
Please send us your application documents, as a single pdf, containing
- a CV with publication list and contact information for at least two references
- a summary of previous research experience (max 1 page)
- and copies of certificates, transcripts and grades
in electronic form by November 22, 2024 to recruiting@senckenberg.de
quoting the reference number #12-24001-1, or apply through
https://www.senckenberg.de/en/career/apply-online/

For more information about the lab and the project, please contact
Michael Hiller (michael.hiller@senckenberg.de) or visit the lab webpage
https://tbg.senckenberg.de/hillerlab/.

Michael Hiller, PhD
Professor of Comparative Genomics
LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics,
Senckenberg Society for Nature Research & Goethe University, 
Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Michael Hiller <michael.hiller@senckenberg.de>

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