Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona Dep of Genetics and Microbiology

We are looking for two students, preferably a biologists, to start two grants for two PhD in systems biology and/or evo-devo about:

• Gene network simulation in pattern formation, morphogenesis and morphological evolution.
  or/and
• Comparative embryonic morphometrics

One of the current challenges of evolutionary biology is to understand how genetic variation leads to specific morphological variation (the g-p map) and how that process affects the direction of morphological change in evolution. Our group is devoted to address this question by using gene network models.

Programming skills or a willingness to acquire them is required.

The grants are provided by the Spanish ministry of science and innovation. One of them is for 4 years and the other is for 3 years extendable to an additional year.

The exact topic of the theses would be discussed in detail after interview.

For an outline of the groups research:
http://bioinf3.uab.cat/grupgbe/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64&Itemid=104

For further inquiries:
isaac.salazar at uab.cat
Genomics, Bioinformatics and Evolution Group

Article example:
Salazar-Ciudad I, Jernvall J.A computational model of teeth and the developmental origins of morphological variation. Nature. 2010 Mar 25;464(7288):583-6.

The Autonomous University of Barcelona is a public university located 20 kms north of Barcelona centre. It has its own "green" campus. It is the university with more PhD students (in proportion of its size) in Spain.