Postdoc: Uncovering Ancient Human & Pathogen Genomics

KU - SCIENCE - SNM; Denmark; On-site; DKK 384,000 - 480,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Parental leave schemes

Reduced tax scheme

Support for international researchers

Job summary

The University of Copenhagen’s Globe Institute invites applications for a two-year postdoctoral position in Ancient Human and Pathogen Genomics in the Sikora lab at GeoGenetics. The successful candidate will apply robust bioinformatic and statistical tools to ancient pathogen DNA and carry out evolutionary and phylogenomic analyses.

They will collaborate across archaeology, history, and bioinformatics, contribute to manuscript preparation, supervise students when possible, and participate in the

Qualifications

• A PhD in bioinformatics, computational biology, genomics, evolutionary biology, health sciences, or a closely related quantitative field.
• Strong experience in the computational analysis of large-scale sequencing or metagenomic datasets.
• Proven ability to perform population genomic, evolutionary, and phylogenomic analyses of ancient DNA datasets
• High proficiency in data analysis and statistical programming using R and/or Python.
• Experience working in high-performance computing (HPC) environments for large-scale analyses and with workflow management tools such as Snakemake or Nextflow.
• Solid understanding of next-generation sequencing (NGS) data characteristics, limitations, and sources of bias, particularly in low-coverage or degraded DNA datasets.
• Strong analytical and critical-thinking skills, with the ability to translate complex genomic results into biological insight.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.

Responsibilities

• Applying robust bioinformatic and statistical methods to detect, authenticate, and analyse ancient pathogen DNA from large-scale ancient metagenomic shotgun sequencing datasets.
• Performing evolutionary, population genomic, and phylogenomic analyses to jointly investigate human and pathogen diversity through time.
• Leading and contributing to the preparation of manuscripts and the dissemination of research findings in scientific journals.
• Collaborating closely with laboratory scientists, bioinformaticians, archaeologists, and historians in a highly interdisciplinary research setting.
• Assisting in the supervision of graduate students and actively contributing to the intellectual and collaborative life of the research group.

Skills

Bioinformatics

Computational biology

Genomics

Population genomics

Phylogenomics

R/Python

HPC environments

NGS data handling

Education

PhD in bioinformatics

PhD in computational biology

PhD in genomics

PhD in evolutionary biology

Tools

Snakemake

Nextflow

R

Python

HPC

Job description

The University of Copenhagen’s Globe Institute invites applications for a two-year postdoctoral position in Ancient Human and Pathogen Genomics in the Sikora lab at GeoGenetics. The successful candidate will apply robust bioinformatic and statistical tools to ancient pathogen DNA and carry out evolutionary and phylogenomic analyses.

They will collaborate across archaeology, history, and bioinformatics, contribute to manuscript preparation, supervise students when possible, and participate in the