A postdoctoral position is available in the lab of Jennifer Wisecaver at Purdue University to study the genomic basis of metabolic innovation in plants. The lab uses network biology & functional genomics to identify the genes responsible for making specialized metabolites as well as comparative genomics & phylogenetics to untangle the genes' evolutionary histories. Questions we ask include: What are the relative contributions of innovative processes such as gene duplication, gene loss, polyploidization, and genome rearrangement in the origin and diversification of metabolic pathways? What is the speed and importance of gene innovation at the regulatory versus enzymatic level? How does the impact of these processes vary across environments and between lineages?
The lab has funding to study genes involved in herbivory defense and other specialized metabolic pathways in Setaria viridis, green foxtail, and other wild members of the genus. Research activities for a postdoc on this project would include (but are not limited to): performing plant abiotic and biotic stress experiments, preparing samples for high-throughput sequencing, developing and deploying bioinformatic pipelines to predict gene function, developing new analytical visualization methods of these data, evolutionary analyses of gene families and integration of these results with gene expression network modeling and phenotypic data. To accomplish these tasks, the lab is seeking a highly motivated, creative individual with strong computational and evolutionary genetics skills.
Dr. Wisecaver is committed to increasing STEM participation across all measures of diversity, fostering an encouraging and collaborative lab environment, and acting as a mentor and facilitator to enable the career success of all lab members. A postdoc in the Wisecaver lab would be a welcome member of a vibrant community of scientists in the Department of Biochemistry and the Center for Plant Biology at Purdue. In addition, a postdoc would have access to world-class research facilities, most notably the Bindley Bioscience Center and the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing Community Cluster Program.
If you are interested in joining the lab, please send an email to Jen Wisecaver (jwisecav@purdue.edu) with a statement of research interests, CV, and the names and contact information for at least two references.
Evaluations of applicants will begin July 15, 2018 and continue until the position is filled.
Jennifer H. Wisecaver
Assistant Professor
Department of Biochemistry
Center for Plant Biology
Purdue University
Ph: 1-765-494-4157
jwisecav@purdue.edu
www.wisecaverlab.com
