The Rogers Lab’s in the Dept. of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine Dalhousie University, seeks a Research Associate to work on a project aimed at comparative and evolutionary genomics/phylogenetics of anaerobic protists and associated bacteria.
Reporting to the Principal Investigator (PI), the Research Associate will:
- Conduct all wet-lab and computational aspects of a project involving long and short-read genome sequencing, de novo assembly, metagenomic binning, genome annotation and downstream analyses of gene content and genome architecture in a comparative/evolutionary framework, individually or as part of a team.
- Assist the PI in mentoring trainees in the laboratory by training them on genomics, bioinformatics and evolutionary analysis and how to interpret their analyses.
- Present findings at regular lab meetings and other seminars both in the university and at scientific meetings.
- Write findings in manuscripts for peer-reviewed publication.
Required Qualifications:
- Ph.D. in Molecular Evolution or related discipline, with a minimum of 5 years related experience in microbial genomics, evolution and phylogenomics, with a strong record of publishing in high impact journals.
- Extensive research experience in comparative microbial genomics of free-living anaerobic protists, Archaea and Bacteria. Documented experience with metagenomic binning and genome assembly, addressing eukaryogenesis-related phylogenetic problems including the origin of mitochondria.
- Experience with Oxford Nanopore sequencing, Illumina sequencing, de novo genome assembly of microbial eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes, gene prediction/curation and functional annotation of microbial eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes.
- Strong skills in bioinformatics and demonstrated proficiency in Linux and Python programming. Experience guiding trainees in bioinformatics skills.
- Advanced knowledge of phylogenomic analyses and the use of site-profile mixture models in a Bayesian and Maximum likelihood context as well as diagnosis of phylogenetic artefacts occurring in deep tree of life inferences.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills with the ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
This is a 2-year term position with an annual salary of $65,000 pro-rated to $58,500 for 0.9 FTE (31.5 hours/week).
Close date: September 26, 2025
