1 postdoc position, data manager (Jena),Germany

The Heinz-Nixdorf Endowed Chair for Practical Computer Science at the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Germany is looking for a Data Manager for the Biodiversity Exploratories project (http://www.biodiversity-exploratories.de/).

The Biodiversity Exploratories are a large scale research project funded by the German Science Foundation. Three Exploratories in different parts of Germany serve as an open research platform for all biodiversity and ecosystem research groups of Germany.  The aim of the Exploratories is to understand the relationship between biodiversity of different taxa, to understand the role of land use for biodiversity and to understand the role of biodiversity for ecosystem processes. It is the task of the data management group to provide a platform for management and long-term availability of all data collected or computed by all projects within the Exploratories.

The head of our data management team is responsible for the coordination of the work, conceptual work for the further development of the established information system BExIS, and representing the working group within the Exploratories and beyond.  More information about the work of the data management group in general and BExIS in particular can be found, e.g., here:  http://fusion.cs.uni-jena.de/professur/publications/2011

The successful candidate should
* hold a PhD in computer science or a related discipline or one of the natural sciences
* have worked on data management for ecological research data or a related area
* possess excellent communication skills and be experienced in managing a team
* communicate fluently in English, knowledge of German is helpful but not necessary
* be experienced in object-oriented development (preferably .NET or Java) and relational DBMS (ideally IBM DB2 with pureXML).
* ideally also know something about XML technologies, GIS, and/or statistics.

The position starts as soon as possible and is a 3-year, full-time position. Excellent candidates are invited to apply prior to August, 24th 2011 preferably by Email to Carola.Eichner(at)uni-jena.de. Please include all relevant material into one (reasonably sized) PDF file and refer to “Announcement 106/2011”.

Contact:
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Institut für Informatik
Prof. Dr. Birgitta König-Ries
Ernst-Abbe-Platz 2
07743 Jena
Germany

Studying protein folding at single molecule level with optical tweezers ,Modena - Italy

Advances in single molecule manipulation techniques have recently made it possible to revisit protein folding with a new approach. A novel method has been developed to study protein folding using optical tweezers (1). In these experiments, individual proteins are directly manipulated and their response to force characterized in terms of different parameters, such as: i) deformability of the native state, ii) magnitude of the forces holding together secondary and tertiary structures, iii) unfolding and refolding trajectories, iv) anisotropy of the protein’s energy landscape, v) thermodynamics and kinetics of the interconversion between different molecular conformations. These studies have uncovered information previously inaccessible to more traditional ensemble techniques (2, 3).

At the Department of Physics of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia we are now seeking a motivated PhD student willing to undertake research in this field. The PhD appointment is for a period of three years. Candidates should have a B.S. or M.S. in physics or related fields.

For further details please contact Dr. Ciro Cecconi. Applicants should send their resumes (including email address) to Dr. Ciro Cecconi (ciro.cecconi@gmail.com).

References
1) Cecconi, C., Shank, E., Marqusee, S., Bustamante, C., “Protein-DNA chimeras for single molecule mechanical folding studies with the optical tweezers.” European Biophysics Journal, 37 (6), 729-738 (2008).
2) Cecconi, C., Shank, E., Bustamante, C., Marqusee, S., “Direct Observation of the Three-State Folding of a Single Protein Molecule.” Science, 309, 2057-2060, (2005).
3) Shank, E., Cecconi, C., Dill, J., Marqusee, S., Bustamante, C., “The folding cooperativity of a protein is controlled by the topology of its polypeptide chain”, Nature 465 (7298), 637-641, (2010).

Doktorand zum Thema Actin in cell dynamics and epithelial remodelling ,Göttingen, Germany

Our laboratory investigates molecular and genetic mechanisms responsible for
morphogenesis/structure formation in early Drosophila embryos, including
polarisation and formation of the plasma membrane, organisation and dynamics of
the actin cytoskeleton and microtubules and nuclear size, shape and position. In
 our experiments we employ various live imaging techniques in combination with
 molecular and genetic approaches. Funding for two postions is available:

1. Dynamics of cell contacts and function of actin in epithelial cell intercalation.
This project is part of a newly established DFG Forschergruppe ("Functional
dynamics of cell contacts" ).

2. Molecular function and regulation of actin nucleators of the Formin family. This
project is part of the DFG priority programme (SPP "Function and evolution of actin
 nucleators")

The candidates should have a master/Diplom degree in biology or related subjects
 and should be interested in performing a challenging research project as part of an
 international team and within the Göttingen Graduate School (GGNB,
 www.ggnb.uni-goettingen.de), which provides a structured educational programme
 for graduate students. Please contact or send your application (CV, names of
references, copies of certifcates) to Prof J Großhans,  jgrossh@gwdg.de, 0551-
398242)