The Postdoctoral Scholar will take an interdisciplinary approach to study the constraints and trade- offs that shape the evolution of immune signaling networks using a combination of transcriptomic analyses, evolutionary genomics, and/or computational modeling. The postdoc will work directly with the PI to build models, design analytical pipelines, and analyze the results. The postdoc should be comfortable with conducting research with a high degree of independence, learning new methods, writing manuscripts, and presenting their work at conferences. The postdoc should also be willing to co-mentor undergraduate and graduate students. The postdoc will have flexibility to develop independent lines of research during their appointment. The position is available as early as summer 2019, and the start date is negotiable.

Please send a CV and a cover letter (1-2 pages) describing research interests and experience, future career goals, and reason for interest in this particular position. Please include the contact information for three academic references at the end of the cover letter. Using the email header “Postdoc position interest,” please send these materials to a.tate@vanderbilt.edu.

A postdoctoral position is available in Maria Diuk-Wasser’s lab @ the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology (E3B), Columbia University, in collaboration with Ángel G. Muñoz at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). The applicant will join research projects newly funded by the Department of Defense, NOAA and the CDC, and will become part of the Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-borne diseases, a collaborative network including faculty from Cornell, Columbia, Fordham and SUNY Universities, the NY State Department of Health and the Center for Vector Biology and Zoonotic
Diseases in CT. The postdoctoral fellow will harness an extensive network of existing and newly acquired surveillance and control datasets to develop diagnostic and predictive models for the presence and abundance of mosquito and tick vectors and their associated pathogens. Areas of emphasis include modeling for optimal deployment of integrated tick management approaches, modeling the population dynamics and spread of mosquito and tick-borne pathogens, multimodel ensemble modeling for Aedes-borne diseases and helping develop a human mobility monitoring system for the US and the Caribbean region. The modeling platforms developed will enhance surveillance and institutional response capacity for real-time impact on vector-borne disease management.

Applicants should have a PhD in ecology, epidemiology, applied mathematics, statistics, climate sciences or a related quantitative field. Background in mathematical modeling of infectious diseases, theoretical ecology, spatial and dynamic modeling or mathematical biology is highly desirable, in addition to having strong programming, statistical and quantitative skills. A track record of research excellence is essential, as are excellent written and oral communication skills. The position is available immediately. For full consideration, submit application by June 30th, review of applications will be on-going until the position is filled. Applications should submit their CV, statement of research interests and the names of three references to: Maria Diuk-Wasser – mad2256@columbia.edu

The Mitchell Lab at UNC Chapel Hill seeks a postdoctoral researcher to work on a project funded by the NSF-NIH-USDA joint program in the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases.

The postdoc will conduct and analyze field-based research on parasite coinfections, including priority effects and cross-scale interactions.  The project leverages an experimentally tractable system, with the opportunity to collaborate on an established long-term experiment as well as to conduct additional short-term experiments.  The postdoc will also have the opportunity to collaborate with other research groups on parasite population genetics, host microbiome analysis, and mathematical modeling.

To apply, please email Charles Mitchell (mitchell@bio.unc.edu) a CV and brief cover letter including your potential start date.  Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled. 

I am looking for an amazing person to work on the evolution of resistance (either mosquito or parasite or beyond), but (additionally) it would also be great to have an immunology-versed person who is interested in working on the interaction of the immune system and parasite evolution (which we hope to do in vitro). I will have money available for a post-doc, but in addition there is this great opportunity: https://evmed.asu.edu/news/open-position-evolution-medicine-postdoctoral-research-scholar. Information on our research.

We seek a postdoctoral researcher to develop mathematical and statistical models of viral processes, linking data across scales to understand the determinants of zoonotic emergence risk.  This position is linked to an exciting DARPA-funded project that brings together a world-class team of researchers across disciplines from virology to ecology to epidemiology, to study emergence risks from bat-borne viruses including Nipah and Hendra virus.  The primary focus of this position is to design quantitative methods to integrate virological data collected in the lab and in the field, at scales from molecules to animals, with the goal of developing biological insight and practical predictors of the evolutionary and epidemiological risk posed by potential zoonotic viruses.  The position offers the rare opportunity to interact closely with top empirical researchers in virology and allied fields, and to participate in designing on-going data collection to support future rounds of modeling.  There will also be rich opportunities to collaborate with other groups on modeling zoonotic spillover, transmission dynamics and viral evolutionary dynamics.

To inquire, please contact Jamie Lloyd-Smith jlloydsmith@ucla.edu with your CV, a brief statement of interest in the project and relevant experience, and your potential start date.  Review of applications is on-going until the position is filled.  

The Harvell and Gomes Labs at Cornell University are recruiting an outstanding, highly quantitative postdoctoral fellow to conduct and analyze field-based research on Seagrass Wasting Disease through the NSF funded project Collaborative Research: The Role of a Keystone Pathogen in the Geographic and Local-scale Ecology of Eelgrass Decline in the Eastern Pacific with CO-PIs E. Duffy, C. Gomes, D. Harvell, T. Hawthorne, and J. Stachowicz. The candidate will integrate field and artificial intelligence application (to quantify disease lesions) data from 6 latitudinally distributed sites from San Diego to Alaska with local temperature logger data and satellite remotely sensed data. Some experience with structural equation modelling would be helpful. The position includes the expectation to draft and submit multiple manuscripts for publication in top-level peer-reviewed scientific journals; present results at professional meetings, conferences, and popular seminars; engage in ongoing academic and intellectual life within relevant scientific programs at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, the Cornell Institute for Computational Sustainability, the Smithsonian Institution and Friday Harbor Labs. Start Date: April or May 2019; 2 years of funding with potential to raise more. Candidates should submit a short cover letter, CV, contact information and information for 3 references, research statement summarizing doctoral or postdoctoral research, and a statement of contribution to diversity, equity and inclusion via the website: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/12773

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RE-EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES: THE CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY OF PERTUSSIS

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Abstract:  Complex systems paradigms, such as critical slowing down, regime shifts, systems theory, and computational forecasting, have taken center stage in the global effort to predict and mitigate emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Such approaches are predicated on models integrating information collected typically at microscopic scales and extrapolating macro-scale phenomena, such as bifurcation, percolation, and persistence. Complex systems perspectives and methodologies are essential as we come to grips with the ecology, immunology, and evolution of complicated infectious disease systems. Pertussis offers a prime example of this in the context of a scientific problem of great timeliness and importance.

The current re-emergence of pertussis, once seemingly on track to eradication, is enigmatic, due largely to its complexity as a host/pathogen system. In particular, the dynamics of pertussis are shaped by the interplay of pathogen transmission, host immunity, host contact-network structure, pathogen evolution, and public-health intervention across a wide range of spatio-temporal scales and levels of biological organization. Globally, trends and cycles in pertussis prevalence are idiosyncratic, due to variations in human behavior, geographic transmission bottlenecks, and dynamic variation in the nature and extent of public health intervention. The resulting scientific contention can only be resolved by theory capable of reconciling disparate, and seemingly contradictory, observations. Key elements of such a theory necessarily include: heterogeneities in immunity, age- and spatially-structured contact networks, dynamism in contact-network structure at behavioral time-scales, and large exogenous perturbations due to vaccination campaigns and behavior changes. Simplified versions of such theoretical systems display (1) prolonged transient dynamics which can contain signatures of the mode and efficacy of immunological protection, (2) sensitivity to contact-network structure, (3) prominent interactions between nonlinear and stochastic effects, and (4) manifold potential for counterintuitive emergent effects resulting from the above. The intellectual aim of the workshop will be to develop a complex-systems theory of pertussis within an inferential framework suitable for confronting models directly with extant data drawn from epidemiology, behavior, and immunology. This theory, and the techniques used to test it, will be readily generalizable to other disease systems because our efforts to resolve the causes and consequences of pertussis’ resurgence will necessarily be focused on the essential theoretical questions at issue in complex eco-epidemiological systems generally.

In June, I had the opportunity to spend two weeks in Princeton working with Andrea Graham and two postdocs, Sarah Budischak and Anieke van Leeuwen. The purpose of this visit was two-fold: (1) develop a mathematical model of within-host dynamics incorporating host immune responses, non-immune physiological processes (e.g., growth, storage), and parasite exploitation and growth; (2) use this model as a basis for identifying key experimental measurements to quantify the effect of diet on host and parasite fitness. This exchange stemmed from a theory paper I published last year showing that increased host resources could either increase or decrease parasite fitness, depending on the structure of the resource-immune-parasite interaction. Dr. Graham and Dr. Budischak initially contacted me to ask about extending the model to consider the role of host diet in driving within-host dynamics of macroparasites, focusing on understanding when host response should focus on tolerance over resistance. Out of this conversation, I developed an RCN proposal more broadly considering how diet links within-host and between-host scales to shape both host immune phenotype and parasite exploitation.

The research exchange was structured around daily meetings between the four of us. I would typically spend the day working in Dr. Graham’s lab alongside Dr. Budischak, who is primarily trained as an immunologist. This work environment allowed me to get instantaneous feedback as I was developing the model. During the first week of the exchange, the daily meetings were primarily spent defining, discussing, defending, and refining a biologically reasonable model structure. This was one of the most useful aspects of the process for me, as my knowledge of immunology is limited. As the model development proceeded, Dr. Budischak searched the biomedical literature for estimates of model parameters. This process helped identify key parameters that need to be quantified from subsequent Graham lab experiments. During the second week of the exchange, the focus shifted to model analysis (both analytical and numerical). This analysis helped further hone the search for parameter values and showed that the model is capable of producing both host tolerance and host resistance.

I am hopeful (and reasonably confident) that this research exchange has resulted in a profitable long-term collaboration. Already we have used results from this exchange in two grant proposals. The current plan is to use the data from mouse-helminth experiments to develop an empirically validated model of within-host dynamics and then use this model to study the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of both the host and parasite, focusing on questions like: (1) can diet shift parasites from being resource-limited to immune-limited, and does each type of limitation have a dynamical signature at the between-host scale? and (2) when do cross-scale interactions give rise to self-reinforcing feedbacks, such as the “negative spiral” of malnutrition and infection?