Two PhD positions in food microbiology and nutritional sciences

The project will encompass the functional screening of the genomic content of a collection of over 500 sequenced and annotated lactic acid bacteria, the metabolic profiling (GC-MS and LC-MS) of polyfermented yogurts prepared with strains selected from this collection, and the characterization of the impact of the ingestion of these yoghurts in a range of murine models (germ-free mice, gnotobiotic mice, mice infected with Candida albicans).

PhD1 will focus on in silico /bioinformatics analyses of bacterial genomes. This will include predictive genome-scale modeling of the bacterial culture collection, the analysis of experimental genomic as well as transcriptomic data from bacterial communities in yoghurts and along the gastrointestinal tract of mice having ingested these products.

PhD2 will focus on the experimental part of the project, including the development of polyfermented yoghurts and the conductance of the nutritional intervention studies in mice. The work will further require a characterization of the metabolomes of yoghurts and murine biofluids as well as of the genome and/or transcriptome of the gut microbiota of the mice.

Both PhDs will collaborate closely on the project to foster the links between genotype and phenotype as well as between food and nutrition.

Applicants for these PhD positions should hold a master degree in a molecular or biological science, ideally biostatistics for PhD1, and be strongly interested in multidisciplinary work focusing on the in silico (PhD1) and experimental (PhD2) analyses of large datasets. Excellent knowledge of English is required and German would be an asset.