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Currently open positions

Senior BioEM-Instrument Specialist (tenure-track, 100%)

Start date flexible after March 1st 2024 or as per agreement

How does life emerge from molecules and cells? This is the central question that motivates us. With curiosity and passion, we investigate the entire spectrum ranging from the atom to the organism. The Biozentrum of the University of Basel is one of the world’s leading life sciences institutes. With 32 groups and 500 employees, we are a dynamic and international research community that has spawned many fundamental discoveries in biology and medicine as well as several Nobel Laureates. Become part of our community!

The BioEM labis a research facility unit that provides state-of-the-art analysis of biological samples by electron microscopy (EM), in particular single-particle cryo EM and cryo electron tomography (cryoET) of vitrified biological samples.

Your responsibilities are

  • Maintaining and developing state-of-the-art instrumentation
  • Developing and streamlining cellular cryoET methods
  • Managing external maintenance services
  • Maintaining and developing computational solutions for instrument control
  • Providing technical documentation & user training
  • Contributing to user operation and troubleshooting
  • Contributing to publications

Your profile

PhD degree in natural sciences, computer science, engineering or equivalent experience with:

  • Technical expertise in electron microscope maintenance and development
  • At least 5 years of experience operating electron microscopes for life science applications
  • Hands-on knowledge of typical workflows in cryoEM and cryoET for life sciences
  • Strong communication skills
  • Good written and spoken English knowledge
  • Project management and multitasking in research

We offer

We are a highly interdisciplinary, international, diverse and supportive team of scientists, committed to work at the frontier of science. The Biozentrum offers a cutting-edge research infrastructure and a highly international environment and excellent working conditions. Basel is an international city with people from 150 nations. Located on the border where three countries meet, Switzerland-Germany-France, it is among the most important life sciences hubs in continental Europe. Basel provides a high standard of living and a rich and varied cultural atmosphere.

The position is initially for 2 years with promotion to tenure upon positive evaluation. Salary and benefits are according to University of Basel standards at internationally highly competitive levels.


Application / Contact

The application should include a brief personal statement, explaining your motivation for joining this project and your qualifications and experience related to the role, together with a full, up-to-date CV, diplomas and names and addresses of at least two references. Review of applications will start immediately until the position is filled. Please note that only online applications will be considered.

For any informal inquiries, please contact Dr. Mohamed Chami (mohamed.chami@unibas.ch) or Prof. Timm Maier (timm.maier@unibas.ch) with reference to “Senior BioEM Instrument Specialist.

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Postdoc position: quantitative biology of non-growing bacteria (100%)

How does life emerge from molecules and cells? This is the central question that motivates us. With curiosity and passion, we investigate the entire spectrum ranging from the atom to the organism. The Biozentrum of the University of Basel is one of the world’s leading life sciences institutes. With 32 groups and 500 employees, we are a dynamic and international research community that has spawned many fundamental discoveries in biology and medicine as well as several Nobel Laureates. Become part of our community!

A postdoctoral position is available in the research group of Prof. Erik van Nimwegen. The position is initially for two years, funded by an SNF grant, but may be extended upon mutual agreement. The postdoctoral fellow will be supervised by T. Julou and E. van Nimwegen. The position is available immediately and priority will be given to candidates that can start relatively soon.

The project

The topic of this project concerns Escherichia coli during stationary phase, as a case study of non-growing bacteria. Although bacteria in the wild likely spend the majority of their time in non-growing states, relatively little is known about cell physiology and gene expression in such states, especially at the single-cell level. Our lab uses novel quantitative approaches, such as the one we recently developed to quantitatively track growth and gene expression with single-cell resolution in bacteria exposed to controlled environmental changes [1, 2]. We are interested in both physiological and evolutionary aspects of stationary phase: What are the different physiological states that can be attained during stationary phase? What is the extent and dynamics of cell heterogeneity during stationary, and how does this heterogeneity affect survival, stress-resistance, and the ability of cells to regrow when exposed to new nutrients? Are there evolutionary trade-off(s) between growth-related traits and starvation-related traits? To answer such questions, the candidate is expected to combine experimental techniques from molecular biology, genetics, video-microscopy, microfluidics and microfabrication, with cutting-edge data analysis and modelling techniques, which may be undertaken in collaboration with theoretical researchers in the lab. The project will be tailored to the interests and skills of the successful candidate, and will take advantage of several recent results already obtained in our group.

Your profile

Applicants should have completed a PhD in a relevant field such as biophysics, quantitative biology, microbiology, or evolution. Previous experience with microscopy and microfluidics will be valued. The candidate should have demonstrated experience in programming for data analysis, and/or in mathematical modelling.

Application / Contact

The application should include a brief cover letter, explaining how your qualifications and experience make you a good fit for this position, together with a full, up-to-date CV and addresses of two references. Please apply online using only the mandatory fields, plus the field for references and attachments (cover letter and cv) – other fields will not be considered.

We will review applications as they are received until the position is filled. Please note that only online applications via the application portal will be accepted. For general inquiries please send an email to thomas.julou@unibas.ch

The van Nimwegen Lab [3] at Basel University’s Biozentrum is an international and multidisciplinary team with extensive expertise in the field of transcription regulation, cell-to-cell variability, genome evolution, and probabilistic data analysis techniques. A special feature of our group is that it includes both experimental and theoretical researchers which work together to combine cutting edge statistical and computational tools with quantitative experiments. A list of our group's publications can be found on Google Scholar [4].

[1] 1. M. Kaiser, et al., Nat Commun. 9, 212 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02505-0

[2] T. Julou, et al., PLoS Biol. 18, e3000952 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000952

[3] http://www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/nimwegen/

[4] http://scholar.google.ch/citations?user=N24KB1wAAAAJ

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Scientific data management specialist (BioEM) (100%)

Starting per 1 January 2024 or as per agreement

How does life emerge from molecules and cells? This is the central question that motivates us. With curiosity and passion, we investigate the entire spectrum ranging from the atom to the organism. The Biozentrum of the University of Basel is one of the world’s leading life sciences institutes. With 32 groups and 500 employees, we are a dynamic and international research community that has spawned many fundamental discoveries in biology and medicine as well as several Nobel Laureates. Become part of our community!

The research group of Timm Maier in collaboration with the BioEM lab and computational units at University of Basel and partners across Switzerland is looking for a scientific data management specialist (BioEM). Main focus of the position is to develop data management schemes for large-volume data from biological cryo electron microscopy within the context of the SwissUniversities-funded Open EM-Data network project.

Your responsibilities are

  • Contributing to training and operations
  • Developing workflows to integrate data management at electron microscopy facilities
  • Extending toolsets for data management and metadata harvesting
  • Advising scientists and engineers in integration tasks related to data curation
  • Applying and conceptualizing standards and ontologies for EM metadata
  • Providing technical documentation & user training and contributing to publications
  • Specifics/special working conditions: Periodic travel (3-4 times a year) to meetings with project partners.

Your profile

Master or PhD degree in natural sciences, computer science, engineering or equivalent practical experience

  • Languages: English
  • Experience with Linux, Python scripting
  • Strong communication skills with computational & scientific partners and teams
  • Experience in managing data at the 100s of TB to PB scale, preferentially in the domain of electron microscopy
  • Working knowledge with database systems in research, preferentially in structural biology
  • Project management and multitasking in research
  • Hands-on knowledge of electron microscopy and related software and data formats
  • Generation and interpretation of models representing macromolecular structure
  • Experience with structural biology data deposition in repositories
  • Understanding of biological cells & materials
  • Experience in developing tools supporting scientists in data analysis or curation tasks
  • Understanding of modern software development processes

We offer

We are a highly interdisciplinary, international, diverse and supportive team of scientists, committed to work at the frontier of science. The successful applicant will work within a large scientific collaborative network of excellence for cryoEM data management. The Biozentrum offers a cutting-edge research infrastructure and a highly international environment and excellent working conditions. The position is available for one year. Salary and benefits are according to University of Basel standards.

Basel is an international city with people from 150 nations. Located on the border where three countries meet, Switzerland-Germany-France, it is Europe’s most important life sciences hub. Basel provides a high standard of living and a rich and varied cultural atmosphere.


Application / Contact

The application should include a brief personal statement, explaining your motivation for joining this project and your qualifications and experience related to the role, together with a full, up-to-date CV, diplomas and names and addresses of at least two references. Review of applications will start immediately until the position is filled. Please note that only online applications will be considered.

Please note that only applications through the online form will be accepted.

For any informal enquiries, please contact Prof. Timm Maier (timm.maier@unibas.ch) with reference to "Scientific data management specialist (BioEM)".

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Test Application

This is a test application. Do not apply here - it is only used for testing.

There could be more description text here as well

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New Approaches to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria - 2nd Edition - Pre-registration and abstract submission

Description

Scientific Organizers

Heike Broetz-Oesterhelt, Dirk Bumann, Helle Krogh Johansen, Victor Nizet

Date

June 9-13, 2024

Location

Ascona, Switzerland

Summary of the meeting

Over the past decades, pan-resistant strains of major bacterial pathogens have emerged rendering available antibiotics ineffective and putting at risk many achievements of modern medicine. New ways to identify clinically effective antimicrobials are urgently needed. However, the current antimicrobial development pipeline is inadequate because of high attrition and limited coverage of multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria. This conference aligns with the scope of the National Center of Competence in Research “AntiResist” which aims at revitalizing antibiotic discovery by bringing a patient-centered paradigm shift. Such a shift requires a multidisciplinary approach starting at the bedside. Many factors affect the development of novel antibiotics such as our limited understanding of the physiology and heterogeneity of bacterial pathogens in patients and their interactions with microbiota. Bacteria growing in patients experience environments that are very different from standard laboratory conditions used for antibacterial discovery. This conference will review the current knowledge on clinical activity of antibiotics; the role of microbiota; micro-tissue infection models; bacterial physiology in patients; mechanisms of antibacterial candidates, and non-conventional therapies. It will introduce students to emerging concepts that promise to accelerate antibacterial discovery, improve treatment regimens and uncover novel targets for eradicating pathogens. It will bring together world-leading clinicians, microbiologists, tissue engineers and chemists who share common interests in the field and work towards the development of urgently needed control strategies to win the race against superbugs.

Contact

For more information about the conference program, venue, financial assistance, and important deadlines, visit the conference website. For specific questions regarding the registration or financial assistance, contact info@nccr-antiresist.ch

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Summer Science Academy 2024

In der Basel Summer Science Academy begibst du dich auf eine Entdeckungstour am Rhein und im Labor. Du wirst Proben aus der Umgebung sammeln und in einem richtigen Labor im Biozentrum der Universität Basel untersuchen. Dabei kannst du neue bakterielle Viren, sogenannte Phagen, entdecken und diesen einen eigenen Namen geben. Du wirst neue Leute aus der Region kennenlernen, erkundest Basel als Life Sciences Standort und kannst dich bei gemeinsamen Ausflügen und Social Activities mit anderen Nachwuchsforschenden austauschen.
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