Oferta de doctorado en genética de mariposas (USA)

We are recruiting two students for NSF funded PhD assistantships studying the genomic changes responsible for wing color pattern variation in Heliconius butterflies. The projects offer opportunities for students to develop projects that integrate population genomics, gene expression assays, references genomes, and genome-editing to better understand how changes in the genome cause phenotypic variation. These PhD assistantships are part of an NSF EPSCoR funded collaboration between Mississippi State University (Brian Counterman) and the University of Puerto Rico
(Riccardo Papa) aimed to provide training in genomics through the study of butterfly wing patterns. For more information about this NSF EPSCoR project, please visit https://sites.google.com/view/genome-to-phenome/home

The students will be enrolled in the PhD program in the Department of
Biological Sciences, but will have opportunities for extended visits
and work closely with a collaborative team of Heliconius researchers
including Robert Reed’s lab at Cornell University, Arnaud Martin’s
lab at George Washington University, and Owen McMillan’s lab at the
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Students will be expected
to work with our live Heliconius colonies at the Smithsonian Tropical
Research Institute rearing facilities in Gamboa, Panama. At Mississippi
State University, the students will be housed in the Counterman lab
(https://www.countermanlab.org/) and have opportunities to work closely
with other labs participating in the NSF EPSCoR project: Federico Hoffmann
(gene family evolution) and Ryan Range (pattern development).

The Graduate Program in the Department of Biological Sciences at
Mississippi State University offers a PhD in Biological Sciences. There
is a vibrant and growing graduate program with over 60 students
funded through teaching and/or research assistantships. Further
details about the PhD program can be found in Graduate Handbook here:
http://www.biology.msstate.edu/pdf/2016-BIO-Graduate-Student-Handbook.pdf
MSU is located in Starkville, a quaint college town in northeast
Mississippi. The small town of nearly 25,000 permanent residents offers a
diverse and progressive community with strong town-and-gown relationships
that host several cultural festivals and events throughout the year. The
university is surrounded by remnants of Blackbelt prairies, agricultural
experimental stations and the Sam B. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife
Refuge, which offer a diversity of local outdoor activities and research
opportunities. MSU is centrally located in the southeastern United States,
with Memphis ~2 hrs North and New Orleans ~5 hrs South, and a regional
airport ~20 miles from MSU that offers daily flights to Atlanta.

Required qualifications: The applicant must have a BS or equivalent in a
biological sciences discipline, experience working with genomic datasets
in a Unix environment AND/OR basic molecular biology laboratory methods.

Preferred qualifications: Preference will be given to applicants with that
have a record of scholarly publication, completed an MS in a biological
sciences discipline, and/or any of the following skills: experience
with high-throughput sequence data, Unix environment, genomic analyses,
performing CRISPR-cas9 gene editing.

The project team is committed to increasing diversity in STEM, and we
especially encourage applications from women, minorities, veterans and
other underrepresented groups.

Application: Please send a single PDF containing a CV, unofficial
transcripts, and contact information for three references to
regulatorylogic@gmail.com with “GraduateStudent:ButterflyGenomics“
in the subject line. Review of applications will begin January 31,
2018 and continue until the position is filled. The start date/semester
is flexible. Please contact me at bcounterman@biology.msstate.edu with
inquiries.