Postdoctoral position in Environmental Toxicology

Uppsala University is a comprehensive research-intensive university with a strong international standing. Our mission is to pursue top-quality research and education and to interact constructively with society. Our most important assets are all the individuals whose curiosity and dedication make Uppsala University one of Sweden’s most exciting workplaces. Uppsala University has 44.000 students, 7.100 employees and a turnover of SEK 7 billion.

The Department of Organismal Biology teaches and explores the evolution, development and function on the organismal level. For more information see www.iob.uu.se.

Seeking a motivated, technically skilled and creative postdoc for a highly interdisciplinary project funded through the SciLifeLab network and housed in the Evolutionary Biology Center (EBC) at Uppsala University, Sweden.

The research in this newly opened lab explores the functional responses of single microorganisms in relation to their physical and chemical landscapes. To do this, we develop microfluidic lab-on-a-chip approaches that replicate key aspects of natural environments and combine these devices with high-throughput single-cell physiological readouts (automated microscopic imaging, various molecular readouts and chemical interrogations). Data obtained from such experiments are useful in, e.g., advancing the risk assessment of pollutants under forecasted climate change scenarios and enabling the phenotyping of unicellular phototrophs for industrial processes.

Project description: 
This project aims to improve our ability to forecast the effects of pollutants in natural aquatic environments. We will take advantage of recent advances in lab-on-a-chip technologies to measure the impacts of combined environmental and toxicological stressors on cellular physiologies in microfluidic environments, in high throughput. Model organisms include marine bacteria and phytoplankton, which, due to their fundamental role in carbon cycling and primary production, are of great global and ecological relevance.

Duties: Specific tasks in this project include (i) the design, development and operation of microfluidic platforms, (ii) using microfluidic platforms to measure the impact of environmental and toxicological stressors on model organisms and (iii) analyze the resulting data. 

Requirements: To qualify for an employment as a postdoctor you must have a PhD degree or a foreign degree equivalent to a PhD degree in (bio) engineering, physics, microbiology. The PhD degree must have been obtained no more than three years prior to the application deadline. The three year period can be extended due to circumstances such as sick leave, parental leave, duties in labour unions, etc.

Candidates must have excellent communications skills (written and spoken English) and a good scientific record of accomplishment. Documented experience in microfabrication and use of clean room facilities is highly desired, as is a good working knowledge of biological systems and quantitative image analysis. In this lab we are looking for candidates who can creatively contribute to interdisciplinary work, are highly independent and who thrive in an informal, hands-on lab with a flat hierarchy and friendly people.