Postdoctoral Researcher in Experimental Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance

The Department of Molecular Biology is seeking a postdoctoral researcher to work on the prediction and control of experimental evolution of antibiotic resistance.

The position is full-time for two years and is expected to start on June 1, 2025, or by agreement.

Project Description and Responsibilities

Evolution of antibiotic resistance is inevitable during long-term treatment and contributes to mortality in chronic infections. However, bacteria can only adapt to current conditions. If we could steer their evolution, it might be possible to trick them into evolutionary dead ends where they can no longer develop resistance or do so only at the cost of reduced growth rate or ability to cause disease.

This interdisciplinary project will develop a framework for predicting and controlling the development of multidrug resistance in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa using a combination of mathematical modeling, experimental evolution, and genomics. The project is a collaboration between Peter Lind's group at the Department of Molecular Biology and Eric Libby's group at the Integrated Science Lab (IceLab), funded by the Swedish Research Council.

In the project, mathematical and experimental biologists will work together to combine experimental data with mechanistic mathematical models of the molecular networks driving resistance development to predict the evolution of bacterial populations in the laboratory. Later, the focus will be on steering bacterial populations towards desirable genetic backgrounds by predicting the environmental conditions likely to lead to a specific evolutionary path.

The postdoctoral researcher is expected to primarily contribute to the experimental part of the project while collaborating with theorists.

For more information, please contact Associate Professor Peter Lind at peter.lind@umu.se (mailto:peter.lind@umu.se).

Qualifications

To be employed under a fixed-term postdoctoral agreement, a PhD degree or a foreign degree deemed equivalent to a PhD is required. This eligibility requirement must be met by the time the employment decision is made.

To be employed under the postdoctoral agreement, preference will be given to those who have obtained their degree as mentioned above within the last three years. If there are special reasons, those who obtained their PhD earlier may also be considered. Special reasons include leave due to illness, parental leave, trust assignments within trade unions, service in the total defense, or other similar circumstances, as well as clinical service or relevant service/assignments for the subject area.

The successful candidate should have a PhD in microbiology, molecular biology, evolutionary biology, or similar research fields. Qualified applicants should have documented experience in one or more areas related to the project, such as experimental evolution, bacterial genetics, genomics, or microbiological and molecular biological techniques. Experience with high-throughput assays and data analysis, programming, or interdisciplinary collaborations is advantageous. The applicant should also have a strong interest in understanding and predicting evolutionary processes at various biological levels.

Successful candidates must be able to conduct independent scientific research and have a good ability to write scientific manuscripts. All communication within the research group is conducted in English, and therefore good communication skills in both written and spoken English are required.

Scientific qualifications will be the main assessment criterion and will be based primarily on the quality and quantity of scientific publications, taking into account the time since the PhD. The assessment of applications will follow the guidelines from the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), which Umeå University has signed. The general evaluation criteria are good collaborative skills and possession of the ability and suitability required to perform the tasks, as well as a strong interest in the research area of evolutionary prediction.

Application

Applications should be written in English or Swedish. Applications are made through our electronic recruitment system. The deadline for applications is April 10, 2025. A complete application should include:

• A personal letter describing your qualifications and research interests, as well as a motivation for why you are interested in this position
• A curriculum vitae (CV) with information about education, previous and current positions, and relevant merits for the position
• A list of publications with a brief description of your contributions to your most important publications and preprints
• A certified copy of your PhD diploma or documentation supporting when your PhD is expected to be obtained
• Certified copies of other diplomas, academic course certificates, and/or grades
• A copy of your doctoral thesis (if available) and a maximum of 3 relevant articles/preprints
• Contact information for two referees

Welcome with your application!

More Information

The department belongs to the medical and technical-nature sciences faculties and offers a vibrant research environment with a wide array of state-of-the-art imaging, metabolomics, genomics, and screening facilities. The department is also home to the Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS), with good international contacts through a partnership with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in molecular medicine.

Read more about us at: http://www.umu.se/molbiol (http://www.umu.se/molbiol)