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The Afkhami lab is hiring a postdoctoral researcher at University of Miami (starting in late spring/early summer of 2023) to investigate the functional profile of soil microbiomes using single-cell sequencing. The postdoctoral researcher will work with Dr. Afkhami to advance microfluidic single-cell sequencing technology, which to date has only been used for eukaryotic cell, to be an effective tool for also characterizing prokaryotic community members in a high throughput way. This methodological advancement will allow researchers across disciplines to understand the behavior and functional roles of individual bacteria across entire microbiomes, which will have value for microbiological knowledge as well as for addressing societal issues in medicine, sustainable agriculture, and conservation/restoration. The postdoctoral researcher will then work with Dr. Afkhami to implement these methods within a greenhouse and/or field project to determine the functional dynamics of individual microbes in underpinning microbiome roles in global environmental change and/or plant-microbiome interactions.  

Position Responsibilities :

The postdoctoral researcher will (1) develop depletion protocols and the microfluidics Droplet-Sequencing (Drop-Seq) platform within the Afkhami lab for prokaryotic single-cell sequencing of entire soil microbiomes, (2) conduct experiments with transformed bacteria to document effectiveness of new approach, (3) work with Dr. Afkhami to develop a greenhouse and/or field study using single-cell sequencing to address the functional responses of thousands of individual soil prokaryotes and fungi to key global change factors (e.g., intensification of environmental stressors such as changing temperatures, increasing habitat fragmentation, etc), (4) collect soil microbiome from the field and/or grow plants in UM greenhouse to collect rhizosphere microbiomes for that project, (5) perform single-cell transcriptomic data management and analyses, (6) lead the writing and publishing of project products, and (7) train/mentor other members in the laboratory on use of Drop-Seq and other microbiome approaches.

Minimum Qualifications:

• The candidate must (1) hold or have completed all requirements for a PhD in Biology, Molecular Biology, Ecology, Microbiology, or a related field and (2) must be well versed in the technical skills, foundational knowledge, and literature of both the fields of Molecular Biology/Genomics and the fields of Ecology/Evolution.  

• The candidate must have experience with (1) single-cell sequencing, (2) soil microbiome experimental research, (3) field collections of soil microbiomes, (4) culturing soil prokaryotes, (5) transformation of prokaryotes, (6) plant growth room or greenhouse experiences, (7) aseptic technique, (8) genomics and transcriptomics laboratory skills and analyses pipelines, (9) microbiome bioinformatics and pipelines (e.g., QIIME), (10) coding in R and Python, (11) advanced permutational and multivariate statistics, and (12) data storage and use of public data repositories.

• Other important qualifications include (1) a record strong publication record including first author publications on microbial community dynamics and/or plant-microbiome interactions, (2) demonstrated contributions to furthering an inclusive environment in academia, (3) evidence of effective science communication through conference and/or seminar presentations, and (4) experience mentoring in a laboratory setting (ideally including training others on molecular techniques and bioinformatics). 

The University of Miami is an Equal Opportunity Employer - Females/Minorities/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities are encouraged to apply. Applicants and employees are protected from discrimination based on certain categories protected by Federal law. Click here for additional information.

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