One postdoc position in population genetics and statistical/medical genetics.

Send us your CV by Nobember 15th 2023!

We will have one postdoc positions at the university of Bari, starting in January/March 2024. The positions are aimed at young researchers with a background in computational, medical and/or biological sciences, to work in two projects at the crossroads between population genomics and complex trait analysis. 

Projects overview

The researchers will be working within a project recently funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research under the PRIN program.

The project involves many European Universities and Institutions, together with Regional Health Institutions. The working group includes biologists, health staff and psychologists .

The aim of the project is to investigate the association between genomic variation and different behavioral traits related to substance use disorder and addiction. In doing so, we collected and genotyped 2000+ samples from different medical centres in Apulia, with the aim of reaching 3000 samples in the next months. Moreover, we will perform Whole Genome Sequencing analysis of a subset of 100 individuals.  Furthermore, evolutionary approaches will be used to assess the genetic structure and evolution of Apulian populations, pattern of adaptation and the evolution of quantitative traits.

Both projects involve HPC-based  analysis of large genetic datasets with state-of-the-art methods from population genetics and statistical genomics, including for example, geneti structure assessment, genome-wide scan for natural selection,  local ancestry inference, genome-wide variant-association analyses, and polygenic scores computation.

The day-to-day activity will consist in implementing command line tools, writing custom scripts, and building reproducible and robust computational pipelines, with regular contacts between the groups involved in the project and the larger AnthroPopGen meta-lab.

What we are looking for

Post graduate researchers (previous experience as post-graduate researchers and/or a PhD degree will be considered a plus) with experience in the application of computational methods for the analysis of genetic data. The ideal candidate should be at ease within a Linux/Unix environment, be familiar with the management of common data formats in genetics (PLINK, VCF,...) and demonstrate coding skills in Python/R or other useful programming languages.

What we are offering

• One position at the Department of Biology, University of Bari under the supervision of Dr Francesco Montinaro. Dr Montinaro has a long term experience in modern and ancient human population genetics, and in supervising a small-sized group of postdoctoral and doctoral researchers developed at Bari and at the Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, where he holds a research affiliation. 

Contract duration: 1 years

Net monthly salary:  approx. 1500 €/ month after all income and local taxes

Contract type: Assegno di Ricerca

If interested please get in contact with us by email (francesco.montinaro@gmail.com) enclosing a CV, by November 15th 2023!