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Position Information

Job Summary:

The Dass Microbial Ecology Laboratory studies how pathogens and antimicrobial resistance move across wildlife, livestock, food systems, and people. The postdoctoral researcher will develop and apply molecular and genomic tools to identify ticks, mosquitoes, flies, and mites of veterinary and public health importance, detect the pathogens they carry, and monitor insecticide and acaricide resistance and other traits relevant to control. The work combines specimen collection and colony maintenance with qPCR based detection, resistance marker screening, and transcriptomic and sequencing analysis, and supports the laboratory's federally funded biosurveillance portfolio, which includes tick surveillance and transboundary livestock pests such as New World screwworm. Anticipated effort is 75% research, 15% writing and reporting, and 10% mentoring.

Responsibilities:

Develop, optimize, and validate qPCR and other nucleic acid based assays for arthropod species identification, pathogen detection, and screening of resistance associated mutations.

Maintain arthropod colonies and process field collected specimens, including sorting, preservation, and sample tracking records.

Characterize insecticide and acaricide susceptibility through bioassays and molecular analysis of resistance mechanisms, including target site mutations and gene expression.

Apply RNA sequencing, amplicon, and metagenomic approaches to characterize arthropod transcriptomes, microbiomes, and viromes.

Move assays into the laboratory's tiered detection workflow (qPCR screening, digital PCR confirmation, and nanopore sequencing) and validate them against field, environmental, and reference samples.

Analyze data in R and command line tools, and maintain reproducible scripts and records under the laboratory data management policy.

Work with field, bioinformatics, and modeling collaborators to interpret results and provide decision support to surveillance partners.

Lead first author manuscripts and contribute to sponsor reports, conference presentations, and new proposals.

Train graduate and undergraduate students in arthropod handling and molecular methods.

Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

Required Qualifications:

Ph.D. in Entomology, Molecular Biology, Parasitology, Veterinary Science, Microbiology, or a closely related field, completed by the start date.

Laboratory experience with nucleic acid extraction, PCR, and qPCR, including primer design and assay optimization.

Experience handling, rearing, or identifying insects, ticks, or mites.

Experience analyzing molecular or sequencing data in R or a comparable environment.

At least one first author, peer reviewed publication.