Wellington, New Zealand
Full time, 24 Months
A postdoctoral position is available in microbial natural products discovery, working jointly with Associate Professor David Ackerley and Dr Jeremy Owen in the School of Biological Science at Victoria University. The appointee will play a primary role in a collaborative research programme seeking to extract biosynthetic gene clusters from mega-libraries of environmental DNA and express them to generate novel drug candidates. This research has received Heath Research Council of NZ project funding awarded to Dr Ackerley and Dr Owen in the School of Biological Sciences. The successful candidate will also support new initiatives as these arise.
Applicants should have a PhD (suitable life sciences discipline or organic chemistry) and the ideal candidate would have specific experience with:
•Molecular microbiology and biochemistry, preferably with a focus on microbial secondary metabolism;
•Bioinformatics expertise, ideally with proficiency in one or more of the following programming languages (Python, R, Java, C++);
•Familiarity with Unix environment/cluster computing, particularly installation and usage of resource intensive command line applications for analysis of next generation sequence data;
•Familiarity with modern analytical chemistry, ideally with competency in mass spectrometry and/or NMR spectroscopy (instrumentation, data acquisition and data analysis).
The position is full-time for 24 months, and additional funding may be sought to support an ideal candidate for an additional period of time. Career development and independent funding applications will also be supported.
Ideally the successful candidate will be expected to commence in the role in January, 2017.
Applications close Friday, 30 September 2016.
Victoria University of Wellington is an EEO employer and actively seeks to meet its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi.
For more information and to apply online visit
http://www.victoria.ac.nz/about/careers/current-vacancies.
Reference 1206.
