PhD positition in beautiful Norway

If you're dreaming of doing PhD-related research in beautiful Norway (Stavanger) and if you're curious about the gut microbiome, please see this call.

You'll get to work with Mark van der Giezen, whom I've had the pleasure of working with on numerous occasions. He has been key to stimulating my continued interest in the role of gut commensal micro-organisms in human health and disease.

PhD position: Inflammatory bowel disease and the intestinal eukaryome

Come work in beautiful #Norway: #PhDStudent position to work on the human intestinal #Eukaryome of #IrritableBowelDisease. A joint project between @sus_no and @UniStavanger.

Apply by December the 20th.https://t.co/BfVvCSuhuQ

— Mark van der Giezen (@MitoRem) November 8, 2019

Parasite Course: Concepts in Parasitology (Australia)

For those interested:

There will be a two-week specialist course for PhD students and earlycareer researchers (ECRs), 

run by the Australian Society for Parasitology (ASP) called Concepts in Parasitology.
  
The course is running again this year from the 25^th of November to the 8^th of December 2019 in New South Wales (Kioloa Coastal Campus), and the deadline for applications is the 13^th of July 2019. 

Details of the course are here.

2014 Prospects

Happy New Year!

So, what's in store for us in 2014?

Difficult to say, but as least I can try and say a little about what is going on in our lab. Firstly, we are trying to publish what we are think are very interesting data on how gut bacteria may select for Blastocystis colonisation, a hypothesis we have developed based on studies of metagenomic data.

We are also working with the assembly and annotation of mitochondrial and nuclear genomes in collaboration with our international colleagues; something that will definitely take a while, since we have so few people in our lab to do it (literally one-two persons) but oceans of data (!!) - it's a pity that we cannot speed this up, since genomes are expected to hold keys to some of the great gates of Blastocystis enlightenment. Of course, a constant aim is to attract funding that can help us employ one or more PhD students/post docs interested in genomics and parasites. As always, I encourage my readers to come up with suggestions for funding.

Funding-wise we are also going to try and establish a Marie Curie ITN-network on the roles of intestinal microbial eukaryotes in health and disease and we are also awaiting decisions on other applications; hopefully, we will get some money for gut microbiome and immunological host profiling in experimental animals challenged with Blastocytis cysts. There may also be some work in our lab dealing with the impact of Blastocystis on bacterial communities in in-vitro studies.

Epidemiological data are produced as we speak; luckily, quite a few colleagues in different parts of the world are taking an interest in characterisation of Blastocystis in various cohorts so that we will know more about its epidemiology.

Those are the seminal things. Of course, there will be some exciting conferences, which I've mentioned before, and I'm also looking forward to putting together a Blastocystis review.

Fellowships in Blastocystis Research

We are continually looking into the opportunity for funding for research in Blastocystis and we are on the lookout for young researchers with a MSc or PhD degree who want to spend at least a couple of years in Blastocystis research. Right now, taking an omics approach to studying the clinical significance of Blastocystis is extremely relevant of course, given the amount of genetic diversity of the parasite, its apparent association to groups of bacteria/bacterial richness, its varied distribution across different cohorts, and the general availability of ngs technology and data pipelines.

I'm going to focus my next funding application on the integration of metagenomics, metabolomics, comparative genomics, and transcriptomics, and I'm hoping to find one or two persons with track records documenting extensive experience with one or more of these disciplines and who take an interest in parasites/parasitic protists in general and/or in Blastocystis in particular.

Please note that this is NOT a job offer, but merely an invitation to get into some sort of a dialogue. What we can offer is access to samples, strains, technology, and a Blastocystis-centred network.

Please do not answer in the comments section, but contact me directly (mail/phone) for further info + expression of interest. You'll find a link to my contact details in the previous blog post. Thanks.