Description
An NIH-funded postdoctoral position is available in the laboratory of Dr. Anna Dongari-Bagtzoglou, DDS, PhD, at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine in Farmington, CT. The laboratory is focused on translating the oral microbiome to clinical applications for the prevention of severe oral fungal infection in immunocompromised hosts. Specifically, work in this project will explore probiotic bacterial mechanisms that leverage the interactions between resident host bacterial microbiota, oral epithelial cells and opportunistic pathogenic fungi. The project is expected to advance the search for alternative microbiome-targeted therapies in fungal infections. The successful candidate will primarily investigate the functional role of Lactobacillus johnsonii in changing the composition of the oral microbiome via deep metagenomic shotgun sequencing, using mouse models of oral fungal infection. Oral infection models will include mouse co-housing and microbiota transfer approaches. The candidate will also perform in vitro validation of hypotheses generated through the mouse studies, particularly as they pertain to Lactobacillus-mediated protection of the mucosal barrier from fungal breach.
The fellow will be trained to work with mouse, organotypic and other in vitro polymicrobial systems/models and will be mentored in grant writing. The successful candidate will benefit from a community of interactive research labs, and co-mentoring by microbiome experts, as well as a variety of sequencing, and computational resources available at University of Connecticut, Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine. To apply, please send a CV, a brief statement of research interests, and contact information for three references to Dr. Anna Dongari-Bagtzoglou, Professor and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs, via e-mail: adongari@uchc.edu.
Requirements
Requirements & Preferences:
- PhD in microbiology with emphasis on metagenomics or host-pathogen interactions
- Working knowledge in metagenome sequencing and data analysis
- Experience in bioinformatic analysis of metagenomes (such as metagenome-assembled genomes, comparative genomics, functional annotation of metagenomes)
- Experience in general microbiology and molecular techniques such as bacterial isolation and cultivation, DNA/RNA extraction, qPCR, etc