[alife] PhD Studentship: Spatiotemporal Organisation of Gene Expression

[Jan T. Kim]

Dear ALifers,

please pass this announcement on to anyone who might be interested.
Thanks.

Best regards, Jan

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PhD Studentship: Towards Principles of Spatiotemporal Organisation of Gene
Expression

Project Description:

Having obtained access to entire genomes and a growing amount and
diversity of molecular data, the biosciences now face the challenge to
find principles underlying the organisation of living systems. Two
hallmarks that currently attract attention are biological networks and
spatially extended structures. The objective of this project is to
explore principles that emerge at the interface between these two,
using computational models and integrating them with molecular data.
The emergence of biological complexity by interactions between network
structure and spatial structure formation is expected to be an
important principle, enabling efficient encoding of amazingly complex
phenotypic structures using genetic information amounting to just a
few hundred megabytes.

In this project, you will conduct computational studies of gene
expression and morphogenesis. You will develop computer models of
these biological processes, use these to systematically generate
synthetic data, and analyse these, using statistics and machine
learning approaches, in order to identify characteristic features and
principles of the spatiotemporal dynamics of biological development.

The project will be carried out within the Computational Biology
Laboratory at the School of Computing Sciences. Co-operation with with
colleagues in the School of Biological Sciences, the Institute of Food
Research, and the John Innes Centre provides unique opportunities for
validating and improving your models using empirical data.

Working on this project requires skills / experience in (1) computer
models of complex biological systems and processes (2) handling and
interpreting biological data (ideally experience with microarray
analysis) (3) software development and scientific computing in a Linux
(or other Unix) environment. While the project provides opportunities
to develop and extend these skills, some experience in one or more of
these areas is desirable.

Candidates should hold a degree in Computing, in the Biosciences
or an allied subject. Preference will be given to those with serious
interest, or experience, in work in the interdisciplinary field of
computing and the biosciences. Applicants are therefore strongly
encouraged to mention all experience or interests that may be pertinent
to the project.

Starting Date: 1st October 2005

Funding: Students can expect funding to cover all fees, together with a
maintenance grant, up to an annual combined budget of L 16K

Duration: 3 years

Application procedure: Applicants should complete the application form
available from http://www.cmp.uea.ac.uk/admissions/researchdegree.jsp .

For informal enquiries on the project, please contact Jan T. Kim
(jtk at cmp.uea.ac.uk). General enquiries about the application procedure
should be directed to the  Science Group Graduate Office (scipg at uea.ac.uk).

Closing date: 22 July 2005