Postdoctoral position in Biology

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Department of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics, Uppsala Postdoctoral Position in Biology Addressing carbon metabolism and allocation in higher plants for production of functional food and bioenergy SLU develops the understanding and sustainable use of biological natural resources.This is achieved through research, teaching, environmental monitoring and assessment and information extension.SLU has 3000 employees, 4200 undergraduate and postgraduate students.Main campuses are located at Alnarp, Skara, Uppsala and Umeå.www.slu.se A postdoctoral position is available immediately after the application time ends at Dept of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics, BioCenter, SLU, Uppsala, Sweden.It is one year s position with a possibility for extension of an additional year.Further employment can be applied depending on the quality of the first two years.The department has a good and stimulating work environment with a well internationally recognized quality.The department does, together with five other departments at SLU, form the Uppsala BioCenter (http://bioc.slu.se and http://www.vbsg.slu.se/).Carbon metabolism and allocation are one of the core issues in plant science due to their high importance in design of plant production for different applications both in agriculture and industry.As new techniques and concepts in plant biotechnology emerge, it is now possible to direct carbon flux to different fractions of carbon polymers such as starch, fructan, beta-glucan, cellulose and oil in higher plants.We are focusing on two currently hot topics in plant biology, bioenergy and functional food.Our research goals are to use high technology in metabolic engineering such as transcription factor technology to reprogram carbon metabolism and produce required carbon polymers for many industrial purposes in bioenergy and functional food.For the details of our research please visit our website (http://vaxt.vbsg.slu.se/research/sun/).You will be supported by a postdoctoral stipend for the first half year and by a salary for the rest of one and half years.The objective of your research is to understand carbon allocation in cereal endosperm at a level of molecular biology and provide a theoretical support on breeding of cereal crops for production of functional food and bioenergy.You will work on how carbon flux is directed in developing cereal endosperm with techniques mostly used in molecular cell biology including employing isotopes as a tool. Applicants should be highly motivated and interested in molecular cell biology.Knowledge and technical skills in analysis of gene and protein expression such as Real-Time PCR, microarrays, 454 sequencing, proteomics and in carbohydrate research will be considered as good merits. SLU is an equal opportunity employer.