Requirements: Applicants should have a Ph. D. in bioinformatics, computer science, computational biology or a related field. Candidates will ideally have some familiarity with natural products and their biosynthesis, and be able to code and/or analyze large sequencing datasets, such as shotgun metagenomes and metatranscriptomes. To apply, send your CV, a statement of research accomplishments/interests, references, and github/bitbucket links (if appropriate) to Dr. Jason Kwan: jason.kwan@wisc.edu (please include “Application to bioinformatics postdoc position” in the subject line).
Job duties: The Kwan lab is seeking an enthusiastic individual who will apply and develop bioinformatic solutions for solving natural product supply problems in uncultured and cultured systems, as part of an NIH-funded project. Evolved small molecules made by living organisms (natural products) have been a prolific source of drug leads, but often they possess complex structures not amenable to industrial organic synthesis, with limited supply from natural sources. The successful candidate will mine sequencing data (genomics, metagenomics, transcriptomics) for biosynthetic gene clusters and also for potential regulatory mechanisms that could be exploited for modulating small molecule expression in the lab. Candidates will be expected to work independently, provide intellectual insights, write academic papers, present results at conferences and help less experienced graduate students when called upon.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is a highly ranked research institution with over $1 billion of annual extramural research funding. The university is home to the Center for High Throughput Computing, which provides over 30,000 CPU cores and over 400 million CPU hours to researchers per year. UW-Madison has a vibrant computational biology community, as well as a postdoctoral association and the DELTA program, which together provide career development for postdocs. Finally, Madison has been consistently ranked highly as a place to live, work, play and raise a family (see https://www.visitmadison.com/media/rankings/).