Postdoctoral Fellow, Laboratory of Dr. Todd Michael

The Michael Group in the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory at the Salk focuses on sequencing, assembling and analyzing plant genomes. A broad objective is to build genome resources for plants with unique morphological or lifestyle characteristics (carnivorous, parasitic), minimal plants (duckweed), and crop wild relatives (CWR), to better understand plant genome organization and trait architecture. Currently we are working on several different strategies to generate chromosome-level haplotype-resolved polyploid genomes. In addition, we are developing new techniques to annotate (coding and non-coding) non-model plant genomes using single-cell sequencing, direct DNA modification detection, and computational approaches. We are developing reference-free pan-genome methods for integration into genome wide selection studies (GWAS) and genomic selection paradigms to link population level phenotypes to gene networks underlying environmental response and growth traits. Our long-term goal is to leverage learnings from these genomes to design plants from the bottom up.

Recent publications include:

Grassa et al., 2021, New Phytologist; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33521943

Michael et al., 2021, Genome Research; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33361111/

Van Buren et al., 2020, Nature Communications; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32060277/

Wai et al., 2019, PLoS Genetics; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31199791/

Position Description: 

A post-doctoral position is immediately available for an individual with a good grounding in molecular, genome or computational biology. The ideal candidate will desire to push the boundaries and state of art on plant genome analysis. Individuals with experience analyzing plant genomes and integrating multi-omic data are preferred. Ideal candidates should be intellectually curious, productive, and enjoy working in a committed team effort to bring genomes to the broader plant community. The postdoc will join a vibrant group of molecular biologists, computational biologists and sequencing experts.

Education: 

Ph.D. in Biological Sciences, Computational Biology, Plant Biology or related fields.

Experience: 

Experience with current sequencing technologies (lab or computationally), genome assembly (execution and evaluation), RNA-sequencing, single-cell sequencing, ATAC-seq, DNA methylation analysis, and plant biology. Experience with command line genomics tools, and familiarity with genome tools broadly.

Application Instructions: 

Applicants should submit a current CV, names of three references, and an indication of the experimental direction they would like to pursue based on their reading of our recent papers.