Disease-transmitting mosquitoes are endowed with some of the most complex ears across the animal kingdom that they use to detect mating partners. In our lab (https://www.neuromosquitolab.org), we investigate fundamental biology aspects of the mosquito auditory function and explore novel approaches to disrupt it for vector control. We are looking for a motivated and talented bioinformatician to work on the analysis of transcriptomic data of the mosquito ear across different species and develop novel computational pipelines to study its auditory physiology.

The position will be located at the Vector Biology Lab led by Marta Andrés in Animal Health Research Centre (CISA) within the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). The CISA is one of the main institutions in Spain dedicated to animal and public health, emergent diseases and zoonoses. The lab is starting, and this is an exciting opportunity to join a growing community in an emerging field of research in Spain. We use a combination of approaches that include molecular biology, physiological and behavioural techniques, CRISPR-Cas 9 genome editing and multi-omics approaches. The lab is funded by an excellent ATRAE Programme and European Commission funds. 

What we are looking for?

We are seeking to hire a highly talented and motivated bioinformatician / computational biologist. The selected candidate will analyse large transcriptomics data (potentially multi-omics data) related to the mosquito auditory function and mating behaviour generated by other members of the team and international collaborators. They will also contribute to develop analytical pipelines and computational workflows to analyse physiological and behavioural data, including auditory signal processing and image and video analysis. The candidate will work in an environment of biologists, so they must be able to work autonomously.

About the project

We investigate the molecular basis and physiology of disease-transmitting mosquito species. Our previous work has investigated malaria mosquitoes, we will continue with this species but expanding to other mosquito species relevant for animal and public health in Southern Europe. The lab is starting at CISA-CSIC and therefore this position will be essential to establish analytical workflows and pipelines that will be used by all team members. The position has two main components. The first one involves analysing new transcriptomic data (potentially multi-omics data in the future) from the ear of different mosquito species as well as integrating data previously generated from different labs. This component will include strong interactions with international (in Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa) and industry partners as part of a MSCA Staff Exchange grant. The second component will focus on developing computational pipelines for signal processing, mostly mosquito auditory recordings and video data analysis. Although experience in both fields would be desirable, candidates with experience in only one of them will be considered if they show strong interest to further develop their skills.

Key Responsibilities

The main tasks will be to analyse the data generated by other members of the team and to develop new methods of analysis. The selected candidate is expected to be creative in developing analytical approaches that result in maximal biological insight from the data generated.

The bioinformatician is expected to write manuscripts describing the data analysed, in collaboration with other members of the team. The successful candidate is also expected to assist wet lab scientists of the team in simple bioinformatic analyses and to develop pipelines that can be used by all members of the team for routine analyses. Good integration in the team environment is essential.