Post-doc position at Section of Virology

Department of Biomedical Science and Veterinary Public Health
The Department of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health is part of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science and is responsible for undergraduate and post-graduate education and research on pathology, pharmacology, toxicology, immunology, virology, parasitology bacteriology, food safety and epizootology.

Investigation of the viral flora in bats using viral metagenomics 

The department of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health, Section of Virology is looking for a motivated post-doc researcher to work in an exploratory project on viruses from bats. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to know more on how viruses from wild-life can spillover to humans and domestic animals. Bats, have in many studies shown to be able to harbour more viruses than other species, and have been suspected to being the original reservoir for viruses such as SARS, SARS-CoV-2, Nipha, Ebola, etc. The scope of this project is therefore to investigate the viral flora in bats from various parts of the world using high-throughput sequencing in combination with bioinformatics (i.e. viral metagenomics) as well as to characterise the viruses identified. The work will be performed at the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health, Section of Virology in close collaboration with our international and national collaborators.

The Section of Virology is pursuing research on viruses of veterinary and public health importance and has the following main research activities: 1) Applied and fundamental research on pathogenesis and viral-host interaction of viral infection, as well as on virological aspects of food safety. 2) Development of methods and applications of high-throughput sequencing technologies (HTS) and bioinformatics, such as searching for unknown and variants of known viruses in clinical samples. In addition, HTS is applied to investigate viral genetic variation and ecology. For more information on the research at the section please visit https://www.slu.se/institutioner/biomedicin-veterinar-folkhalsovetenskap/forskning/virologi/.

Duties:
To be responsible for the laboratory work including processing bat samples for HTS, analysis of the HTS data via bioinformatics tools, and do follow up studies including viral genetic characterisation, setting up method for screening large sample sets etc.

Qualifications:
A PhD-degree in veterinary medicine, biology or related areas of no later than three years previous to the application date is required. A comprehensive knowledge on HTS, and bioinformatics analyses of HTS data is very desirable. Also, documented skills in writing publications/reports and personal qualities such as collaboration ability and problem solving ability will be of importance for assessment of the successful candidate.

Place of work:
Uppsala

Form of employment:
Temporary position for one year

Extent:
100%

Starting date:
According to agreement

Application:
We welcome your application no later than 2020-05-08, use the button below.

Academic union representatives:
https://internt.slu.se/en/my-employment/employee-associations/kontaktpersoner-vid-rekrytering/



The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) develops the understanding and sustainable use and management of biological natural resources. The university ranks well internationally within its subject areas. SLU is a research-intensive university that also offers unique degree programmes in for example rural development and natural resource management, environmental economics, animal science and landscape architecture.

SLU has just over 3,000 employees, 5,000 students and a turnover of SEK 3 billion. The university has invested heavily in a modern, attractive environment on its campuses in Alnarp, Umeå and Uppsala.

www.slu.se

SLU is an equal opportunity employer.