[Cnidaria] postdoc positions

[Casey Dunn]

Hey all-
	I have the following two positions open. Please forward to others  
that may be interested but are not on the mailing list.
	Best,
		-Casey


Evo-Devo Postdoc Opportunity

I am currently seeking a postdoctoral researcher interested in the  
evolutionary developmental biology of cnidarians. The primary goal of  
the project is to advance our understanding of the development of the  
asexual colonies of the hydroid Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus and the  
siphonophore Nanomia bijuga. Colonies of both these species consist of  
functionally specialized polyps and medusae that are produced  
asexually but remain attached throughout their lives. Insight into  
colonial organisms with functional specialization has broad conceptual  
implications for the origin of developmental mechanisms at new levels  
of organization, such as in the transition from unicellularity to  
multicellularity, and the evolution of the differentiation and the  
division of labor.

The project involves profiling transcriptomes using next-generation  
sequencing technologies to identify genes that are differentially  
expressed between the various types of polyps and medusae. The  
expression patterns of some of these genes will be characterized in  
greater detail. The asexual budding process that generates the  
different polyps and medusae will also be described in detail using  
vital markers, cytoskeletal labels, and other appropriate tools. The  
successful candidate will be encouraged to investigate additional,  
related problems, such as germ-line segregation in colonial animals,  
the specification of directional asymmetries in non-bilaterians, and  
general topics in cnidarian embryology. Opportunities are also present  
to participate in field and computational work, as well as broader- 
scale comparative studies.

The successful candidate should have experience with both molecular  
tools (generating cDNA libraries, performing in situ RNA  
hybridizations, building DNA constructs, etc...) and imaging (eg  
immunohistology and confocal microscopy). The position will remain  
open until filled, with the successful candidate starting as soon as  
is possible for them. Please send a cover letter outlining the  
reasoning for your interest in the project, a current c.v., and  
contact information for 3 professional references to casey_dunn at brown.edu 
.

More information on my lab can be found at: http://www.brown.edu/Faculty/Dunn_Lab/index.php 
.



Phyloinformatics Postdoc Opportunity

I am currently seeking a postdoctoral researcher interested in the  
conceptual and practical problems of analyzing phylogenetic data from  
whole genomes and ESTs. This work will build on a recently published  
animal phylogeny (http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature06614) that  
considered 150 genes from 77 broadly sampled taxa, including 29  
animals for which we collected new EST data. The primary research  
focus will be on homology identification (based largely on graph-  
theory approaches to building clusters of similar genes from pairwise  
similarity data) and paralogy evaluation (through phylogenetic  
methods). The postdoc will explore various theoretical aspects of  
these and related problems, and take part in the authorship of open-  
source software tools that will facilitate large-scale phylogenomic  
projects in labs without the expertise to build these tools from  
scratch. It is hoped that the successful candidate will take the  
initiative to investigate and build tools for other new challenges  
that are arising with the the growing use of high-throughput  
sequencing for phylogenetic problems. The candidate would be  
encouraged to get involved on the field, organismal, and wet-lab  
aspects of the research program if they so desire.

A thorough understanding of phylogenetic theory and experience in the  
phylogenetic analysis of molecular data are essential. Strong unix  
skills, proficiency with one or more computer languages, and  
familiarity with relational databases are also required.

The position will remain open until filled, with the successful  
candidate starting as soon as is possible for them. Please send a  
cover letter the reasoning for your interest in the project, a current  
c.v., and contact information for 3 professional references to casey_dunn at brown.edu 
. More information on my lab can be found at:http://www.brown.edu/Faculty/Dunn_Lab/index.php 
.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Casey Dunn
http://www.brown.edu/Faculty/Dunn_Lab/index.php

casey_dunn at brown.edu    	80 Waterman Street
office 401.863.9806			Box G-W
lab 401.863.2242			Brown University
siphonophores.org			Providence, RI 02912 USA