Postdoctoral fellowship (2 years) in Molecular Parasitology

Medicinska fakulteten, Department of Molecular Biology

Umeå University is one of Sweden’s largest higher education institutions with over 37,000 students and about 4,700 employees. The University offers a diversity of high-quality education and world-leading research in several fields. Notably, the groundbreaking discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool, which was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was made here. At Umeå University, everything is close. Our cohesive campuses make it easy to meet, work together and exchange knowledge, which promotes a dynamic and open culture.

The ongoing societal transformation and large green investments in northern Sweden create enormous opportunities and complex challenges. For Umeå University, conducting research about – and in the middle of – a society in transition is key. We also take pride in delivering education to enable regions to expand quickly and sustainably. In fact, the future is made here.

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The Faculty of Medicine, which consists of 12 departments, is responsible for biomedical research and courses in the field of nursing and health care and has an extensive research and graduate education in more than 80 subjects.

The Department of Molecular Biology is offering a postdoctoral scholarship in Medical Science with a focus on Molecular Parasitology. The scholarship is full-time studies for two years, starting March 2025 or by agreement. Application deadline is 31 January 2025.

Project description

The Bushell lab is a part of the Laboratory of Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS), the Swedish node for the Nordic EMBL partnership for Molecular Medicine. We are based at the Department of Molecular Biology at Umeå University.

Our research focuses on uncovering the molecular processes underpinning the parasite-host interactions that drive malaria infection and disease. We are particularly interested in those proteins that the malaria parasite actively exports and that facilitate rapid and dramatic remodelling of the infected red blood cell.

We leverage the unique genetic tractability of the murine malaria model parasite Plasmodium berghei and develop new genetic tools and phenotypic assays to understand the function of exported parasite proteins at a genome-scale in vivo. Our previous work has identified thousands of parasite genes that are required for normal parasite growth in the bloodstream. However, the molecular function of most of these genes remain unknown.

We have recently developed PbHiT, a CRISPR/Cas9-based high-throughput system for effective genetic modification of P. berghei. PbHiT allows us to engineer conditional alleles to disrupt essential genes at scale and facilitates pooled CRISPR screens for the first time in a malaria parasite. This project will capitalise on the development of PbHiT to adapt perturb-seq methodology to P. berghei, which couples CRISPR screens with single cell RNA sequencing to read out the phenotypic effect of gene disruption and generate mutant transcriptomes at an unparalleled scale.

The purpose of the scholarship is to promote internationalization and contribute to research merit in close connection with the doctoral degree/equivalent.

Qualifications

A person who has been awarded a doctorate or a foreign qualification deemed to be the equivalent of a doctorate in Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Immunology or related fields at the time of recruitment qualifies as a postdoctoral fellow. This eligibility requirement must be met at the latest when the decision on the scholarship recipient is made. Upon equal qualification, priority should be given to candidates who have completed their doctoral degree no more than three years before the closing date of the application. Further, a candidate who has completed their degree more than three years before the closing date may be considered if special circumstances exist. Special circumstances include absence due to illness, parental leave or clinical practice, appointments of trust in trade unions or similar circumstances.

You should be highly motivated and self-driven, while good teamwork and communication skills are required to interact effectively in the team. Proficiency in written and spoken English is also required. Great emphasis will be placed on personal suitability.

The successful candidate should have experience in advanced molecular cloning methods such as Gibson assembly or CRISPR/Cas9 vector design and construction, or experience in next generation sequencing methodologies, in particular RNA bulk or single cell sequencing.

Experience in handling of laboratory animals and in cultivation and transfection of eukaryotic parasites is desirable. Knowledge of bioinformatics and programming is not a requirement and training is available, but it is a merit.

Application

You apply via our system Varbi. The application must be received latest 31 January 2025. Your application must contain the following documents written in English or Swedish:

Cover letter (max. 1 page) clearly describing your research experience, motivation and how your expertise matches the requirements.
Curriculum vitae (CV, max. 2 pages) and publication list (max. 5 pages).
Verified copy of doctoral degree certificate or documentation that clarifies when the degree of doctor is expected to be obtained.
Contact information of two references.

More information

For more information, visit http://www.bushelllab.com/, Department of Molecular Biology, UCMR - Umeå Centre for Microbial Research and MIMS.

For questions contact Ellen Bushell, ellen.bushell@umu.se.

We look forward to receiving your application!