Two PhD positions in systems biology and/or evo-devo

Added on Nov 3, 2011

Job description

The Helsinki evo-devo research community (Institute of Biotechnology, Helsinki University) is looking for two students, preferably biologists, to start two grants for two PhDs in systems biology and/or evo-devo about:

• Gene network simulations of pattern formation, morphogenesis and morphological evolution of mammalian organs or/and
• Variational phenomics, 3D morphometrics, development and evolution.

One of the current challenges of evolutionary biology is to understand how genetic variation leads to specific morphological variation (the genotype-phenotype map) and how that process affects the direction of morphological change in evolution. The Salazar-Ciudad group is devoted to address this question by using gene network models and empirical analysis of developmental and variational data.
Programming skills or a willingness to acquire them are required.
The grants are provided through the Finnish academy of sciences. One of the positions is between Isaac Salazar-Ciudad´s Group and Jukka. Jernvall's group and the other is in Isaac Salazar-Ciudad's group. The exact topic of the theses would be discussed in detail after an interview.For an outline of the groups' research:
http://www.biocenter.helsinki.fi/bi/evodevo/group_isaac.shtml http://www.biocenter.helsinki.fi/bi/evodevo/index.shtml
For further inquiries: isaac.salazar@uab.cat