*Research Position @UNIFE*

Two-year research position in population genomics and metagenomics is
available in the Silvia Ghirotto research group at the University of
Ferrara (Italy -
https://ghirotto-lab-at-university-of-ferrara.github.io/index.html).

*General Project*

Several archaeological and genetic evidence have shown that the Neolithic
transition has deeply affected human recent evolutionary history through
the adoption of new ways for foods processing and cooking. Such transition
in human dietary habits triggered important changes in the evolution
of both humans and of the microbes associated with them. Despite these
numerous signals suggest that a strong human microbiome transformation
occurred, only very few scientific studies have analysed the composition
of past oral microbial communities during this transition, depicting
sometimes contrasting scenarios. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that
bacterial oral taxa show patterns of phylogenetic diversification able to
distinguish coeval populations based on their geographical distribution.

This project will focus on a peculiar archaeological remains: the
dental calculus, a highly informative substrate that retains biological
information from both host and microbial communities, as well as residues
of food and materials introduced in the oral cavity. Combining metagenomic
and population genetics analysis on a large dataset of Palaeolithic,
Neolithic and Eneolithic individuals from Central-Southern Italy,
the project aims to: 1) reconstruct the oral microbiomes of ancient
human populations in Italy, to infer changes in diet, health and
lifestyle during the Neolithic transition compared to previous time;
2) investigate the evolutionary and demographic processes associated
to the Neolithic transition in Italy and in the Mediterranean Europe,
through the analysis of genomes of commensal species; 3) developing new
methodological approaches for the genetic analysis of dietary components
in ancient dental calculus.

In particular, the project aims to expand the number of samples from
Palaeolithic period, exploiting one of the most important pre-Neolithic
archaeological site in Italy, in order to explore the oral microbiome
variability within ancient hunter-gatherer communities that are still
poorly investigated. Moreover, providing a high number of samples from
different time transects covering a wide temporal scale in a restricted
geographical area will be crucial to unveil the genetic impact of this
cultural revolution in finer detail.

The project will be developed through the collaboration of two Research
Units (Florence and Ferrara), that possess research infrastructures and
renowned expertise in molecular analysis applied on ancient DNA,
bioinformatics, metagenomics, and population genetics.

*Requirements*

Candidates should have finished their bachelor's or master's degree
no more than six years before the deadline for applications.

Specifically, the position at UNIFE is focused on the reconstruction of
ancient metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from dental calculus, and on
performing phylogenetic and population genetic analyses on assembled
bacterial genomes with the aim of shed light on Neolithic transition in
Southern Europe.

We are looking for a motivated candidate, hardworking, and interested
in addressing scientific problems with rigor and creativity. The ideal
candidate should have a graduate degree in biology, genetics, or a
closely related field, and a strong interest in bioinformatics. The
candidate should have a good computational background (basic knowledge
of R, Python or Bash programming languages are mandatory); experience
with cluster computing environments is mandatory. He/she should also
have a good population genetics background.

Selection will be held around January 2026; starting date is March 2026.
Net salary will be around 1650 EUR/month.

For further information please contact Prof. Silvia Ghirotto (
ghrslv@unife.it) and/or Patrícia Santos (sntprc1@unife.it)

Patrícia Santos, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology
University of Ferrara (IT)

Patricia Alexandra Silva Santos <sntprc1@unife.it>

(to subscribe/unsubscribe the EvolDir send mail to
golding@mcmaster.ca)