Advanced Postdoc / Senior Research Assistant

Project description

The overall aim of the Institute of Bee Health is to contribute to the improvement of the well-being of bees. Bees are exposed to a wide range of different stressors. To investigate these stressors, we perform both fundamental and applied research in Switzerland and internationally.

Recently, sharp declines in wild bee populations and unsustainable losses of managed bees have been reported around the globe. While some of the underlying drivers are relatively well known (e.g., habitat loss, pesticides, climate change), the potential negative impacts of managed bees on wild bees are less well understood, despite recent increased attention. Two main types of ecological interactions through which managed bees could negatively impact wild bees are frequently put forward: competition for floral resources and pathogen transmission. However, it remains unclear whether and how competition for floral resources and the impact of pathogens acquired from managed bees affect wild bee populations on the long term. We, a consortium of twenty managed and wild bee experts as well as social scientists, recently acquired Swiss National Science Foundation funds to clarify how managed and wild bees interact. Our project, called BEENERGIA (“Bridging Ecological and socio-Economic scieNces to Enhance our undeRstandinG of the Interactions between mAnaged and wild bees”) aims to combine hypothesis-driven laboratory and field studies that integrate observational, experimental, molecular and modelling approaches with sociological studies. These complementary approaches will be applied to a diverse set of managed and wild bee species to gain a comprehensive understanding of how competition, pathogens and other stressors affect wild bee populations in the short and long term. The knowledge generated will enable BEENERGIA to evaluate and optimise mitigation measures and inform policy-making towards consensual and effective bee conservation and management strategies.
We need you as one of the fourteen postdocs, PhD candidates and staff to be hired in this large project to make a difference in how ecological and economical services of bees are preserved.

Position description

The successful candidate will actively develop and implement bioinformatic pipelines for processing and analysing NGS data in accordance with FAIR principles. The role includes demonstrated expertise in long-read sequencing data analysis, particularly from PacBio platforms, alongside short-read technologies. A central focus of the position will be the investigation of viral intra-host and interspecies diversity, including the characterization of variant populations, their dynamics, and tissue tropism. The candidate will contribute to advancing our understanding of how viral populations evolve and distribute within hosts and between species.
The position will be primarily based in Bern but will require periodic presence at the Agroscope research center in Posieux during specific periods.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, Population Genetics, Molecular Biology, or related fields
• Experience with whole-genome sequencing, virus diversity analyses, and bioinformatic tools
• Experience with long-read analysis (PacBio)
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, R, or Perl.
• Strong analytical and computational skills
• Strong team spirit and ability to work autonomously
• Good written and spoken English level (B2)