We seek a talented and dedicated scientist with a background in computational biology, statistics, phylogenetics and bioinformatics, to analyse experimental and field data for virus infections in chickens, and to help develop phylodynamic inference and models for the effects of vaccination on virus transmission and evolution.
https://www.ed.ac.uk/roslin/work-study/opportunities/vacancies/research-fellow-statistical-phylodynamic-modelling
https://www.findapostdoc.com/search/job-details.aspx?jobcode=9652

This research position is part of the international collaborative project: “Combined influence of imperfect vaccines, host genetics, and non-genetic drivers on virus transmission and virulence evolution” funded by the international Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) Programme. https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FV017411%2F1

This project will generate informative, high-resolution empirical data to monitor virus transmission and establish the role of genome variability on virulence evolution. The main tasks of the successful candidate will be to analyse chicken transmission experiment data, including infection data and viral sequence data; and to help develop the statistical and phylodynamic models to describe how transmission and viral evolution changes with hosts of different immune status or genetic background, in transmission experiments and in the field. This will help to develop strategies to control the ecology, evolution and economic burden of viral diseases in poultry and other species.

Your skills and attributes for success:
· Experience in advanced statistics applied to biological data and in computational and statistical bioinformatics techniques
· Experience in phylogenetics, ideally viruses or other fast evolving organism.
· Strong track record in publishing in internationally recognized scientific journals
· Ability to work effectively in a multi-disciplinary project team and presenting technical methods and results to non-quantitative audiences

Project overview:
To maintain human and animal health, it is extremely important to understand how pathogens like viruses are transmitted and evolve to higher virulence. In this project, an international, interdisciplinary team investigates the impact of vaccination and selective breeding on the spread and evolution of two avian pathogenic viruses - Marek’s disease virus (MDV) and infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) – both of which are primarily controlled by imperfect vaccines. It has been argued that imperfect vaccines like those to MDV and IBV, or host genetic resistance may alter the balance of selection between pathogen transmission and virulence by allowing a few more divergent but still virulent strains to be transmitted. However, these hypotheses have not been proven, and predictive frameworks are lacking for determining the combined influence of host and viral genetics, as well as vaccination on viral transmission and evolution to increased virulence

Ref: 340
Closing date: 3 June 2021

College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine/The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
UE07 £33,797-£40,322, Fixed term, 35 hours per week