فاند پسادکتری زیست شناسی بلژیک

The lab of evolutionary and computationally virology (ECV) at the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation offers a dynamic research environment to study virus evolution and molecular epidemiology. The ECV team is composed of researchers with various backgrounds, including biology, biotechnology, statistics and computer science, and maintains a highly collaborative research program. The ECV research combines computational and molecular biology approaches to study the evolutionary history and epidemic dynamics of a broad range of viruses, including for example HIV, influenza, hepaciviruses, SARS-CoV-2, Ebolavirus and Lassa virus. The team is an important contributor to the popular BEAST software (https://beast.community) for Bayesian evolutionary analyses including many developments for phylogeographic reconstructions and visualization. The team is part of international projects such as Artic (https://artic.network) and MOOD (https://mood-h2020.eu) and is supported by an ERC consolidator grant. The team is embedded in the unit of Clinical and Epidemiological Virology (https://rega.kuleuven.be/cev) at the Rega Institute (https://rega.kuleuven.be).

The postdoctoral researcher will lead phylogeographic analyses of various human respiratory viruses within different projects. The main focus will be to further develop and apply a preliminary framework for the integration of dynamical modelling and phylogeographic inference. This framework has been developed in collaboration with the EPIcx lab at INSERM in Paris (https://www.epicx-lab.com) within the MOOD project (https://mood-h2020.eu), and allows calibrating dynamical models of global spread of seasonal viruses using genomic data. With collaborators at UMC Utrecht (https://www.infectionandimmunity.nl/research-groups/details/bont), we will also extend this approach to RSV and analyze new genomic data generated by global surveillance efforts within the INFORM project (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32591017/). This will for the first time allow us to dissect the global patterns of RSV circulation. Finally, we will also explore the applicability of this approach to SARS-CoV-2. As part of these projects, you will be able to test a new web-based version of the SPREAD software for phylogeographic visualization (https://rega.kuleuven.be/cev/ecv/software/spread) that is currently under development.

We offer a two-year postdoctoral position in an interdisciplinary environment that will provide several opportunities for impactful research. The project will build on state-of-the-art methodology and you will have access to newly generated genomic data. You will be able to participate in international projects and interact with world class researchers such as Vittoria Colizza and Chiara Poletto at INSERM (https://www.epicx-lab.com), Louis Bont at UMC Utrecht (https://www.infectionandimmunity.nl/research-groups/details/bont) and Marc Suchard at UCLA (https://ph.ucla.edu/faculty/suchard). You will enjoy a large degree of autonomy to organize your work and the ECV will support your career development. The starting date is currently set at 1 November 2021, but there is sufficient flexibility to agree on another date.

For more information please contact Prof. dr. Philippe Lemey, mail: philippe.lemey@kuleuven.be.

KU Leuven seeks to foster an environment where all talents can flourish, regardless of gender, age, cultural background, nationality or impairments. If you have any questions relating to accessibility or support, please contact us at diversiteit.HR@kuleuven.be.