Research Associate in Pollinator Microbial Ecology

Location: Silwood Park Campus

About the role:

The Graystock Lab at the Silwood Park Campus is seeking a microbial ecologist interested exploring the microbiomes of pollinators with the ambition to develop/engineer microbial communities that may protect bees from exposure to harmful stressors.

The project aims to:

1. Improve our understanding of microbe-host-environment functional interactions
2. Explore host-microbiome evolution in natural and lab-based systems
3. Develop microbiomes that can improve bee health in a given environment
4. Significantly advance our understanding of the bee-microbiome holobiont to facilitate pollinator health optimisation.

This project represents a multi-disciplinary approach as part of the Leverhulme Centre for the holobiont, collaborating specifically with Professor Quinn McFrederick (University of California Riverside) and Professor Marc-Emmanuel Dumas (Imperial College London).

What you would be doing:

Over this 3 year post you will help design/lead field surveys collecting pollinators and examining their microbiomes. This will largely be done in the UK but there may be opportunities to include sampling in California. You will then embark on exploring the functional properties of these microbiomes and determining if their functional properties can be optimised to improve bee health. This will be done via a series of lab-based approaches including directed evolution, and transplants. You will explore direct functional properties and impacts on bee health (Guided by the Graystock and McFrederick labs) and metabolomic dynamics (Guided by the Dumas lab).

You will have access to the new multimillion pound Microbiome suite at Silwood Park – hosting Cat2 microbial facilities and paired with the Silwood Genomics suite together boasting illumina and nanopore sequence capabilities. You will also have access to Climate Controlled Insect Rooms, an on-site apiary, and the wider Silwood campus is based within over 100 hectares of managed parkland – a field site on the doorstep! You will be expected to interact frequently with your colleagues in the laboratory, in the field, and through regular group meetings. You will also have the opportunity to supervise undergraduate and post-graduate student projects. Finally, you will be provided the resources to advance your own career along your desired path, through mentorship, professional development opportunities, and opportunities to develop collaborations.

What we are looking for:

Essential criteria:

• Hold a PhD in environmental microbiology, plant pathology, or related field or a closely related discipline
• Excellent scientific communication skills, as evidenced by presentations at scientific conferences and publications in peer-reviewed journals
• Evidence of effective collaborative work in a team environment
• Experience with the basics of experimental design and statistical analysis (the latter in the R programming environment)
• Demonstrated research experience in at least two of the following areas (no candidate is expected to have expertise in all of them):
  • Microbiome engineering
  • Bee-microbe interactions
  • Directed evolution
  • Functional microbial ecology
• Experience with the management/organisation of large datasets

Further Information

Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as a Research Assistant.

Applicants should provide a CV and a cover letter (two pages maximum) explaining their qualifications for the role as part of the application submission. We anticipate holding interviews in early January.

Should you require any further details on the role please contact:

Peter Graystock at p.graystock@imperial.ac.uk with ‘Bee holobiont PDRA’ in the subject line

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