Oferty pracy w projektach finansowanych przez NCN

Nazwa jednostki: Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS – Warsaw, Inne oferty z tego miasta »
Nazwa stanowiska: Post-doctoral position
Wymagania:

Post-doc position available in the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS within National Science Center We seek a highly motivated and enthusiastic Postdoctoral Researcher to join our group at ICTER IPC PAS The position inlclude work upon project entitled “Ultra-high-throughput multimodal single-microbe profiling to study microbiomes”, financed by the NCN (National Science Centre). Our research focuses on single-cell genomics, biotechnology, and bioinformatics. The project involves transcriptomic and genomic profiling of single microbes. The post-doc will work on machine and deep learning methods for analyzing the heterogeneity of microbiota and inferring activities of biological pathways.

The Institute provides an international and interdisciplinary research environment.
Details about the project:

https://www.ncn.gov.pl/sites/default/files/listy-rankingowe/2024-09-16-titokb02cwd/streszczenia/637514-pl.pdf
Leader dr Marcin Tabaka
Specific Requirements

- Strong Background in statistics and deep learning;

- Excellent programming skills in python;

- Familiarity with Unix command-line tools;

- Excellent communication and organizational skills;

- Ability to work independently and interact effectively in an interdisciplinary team;

- Proficiency in English, both spoken and written

Candidate needs to meet formal requirements:

Ph.D. degree in Math, Statistics, Physics, Computer Science or related quantitative discipline.
Ph.D. obtained in the year of employment in the project or within 12 years before 1 January of the year of employment in the project.

Opis zadań:

Project description:

Microbes inhabit almost every part of the human body, living for example in gut, on the eye and skin in the total number of dozens of trillions of cells. Estimates suggest there are more than ten thousand bacterial species living in the human body, forming a complex community called the microbiome. This number is constantly being refined as researchers discover new species. On the other site, the total number of bacterial species living on Earth is estimated to be over 1 trillion. However, only about 660,000 species have their genome determined i.e. 99.99993% bacterial species remain undiscovered. The microbiome, particularly the gut microbiome, plays a surprisingly vast role in our overall health. The gut microbiome helps break down food, allowing us to absorb nutrients effectively; helps regulate the immune system, fighting off harmful bacteria and prevents inflammation. Emerging research suggests the gut microbiome might influence brain function and mental health through a complex gut-brain connection. On the other site, an imbalance in the gut microbiome has been linked to various health conditions, including obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and even certain cancers. The relationship between the microbiome and obesity is complex. Obese individuals tend to have a different gut microbiome makeup compared to lean people. This often includes lower bacterial diversity and a shift in the ratio of certain types of bacteria. Moreover, the gut microbiome plays a role in regulating how our body extracts energy from food. Some gut bacteria are more efficient at extracting calories. While the exact cause-and-effect relationship with obesity is being explored, understanding this connection paves the way for potential future interventions. We plan to develop a powerful new tool that can examine each individual bacterium in a community, like the gut microbiome. This tool would look at both the bacteria's DNA (its blueprint) and its active genes (like the instructions being used). We're developing this tool by combining cutting-edge techniques in chemistry, physics, and genetics. Here's how it works: We can analyze hundreds of thousands of bacteria at once, like taking a giant fingerprint of their DNA and genes. We use special labels to track each bacterium and sequence its entire genetic code, along with which genes are turned on. This allows us to see not only what kind of bacteria are present (species level) but also what each individual bacterium is doing (cell state level). This technology will be a game changer for understanding the microbiome. It's like creating detailed maps of healthy and diseased microbiomes, revealing not only the composition of the microbiome but also which biological or to be more specific metabolic pathways are affected in disease conditions. This knowledge could lead to new treatments. Before we unleash this new methodology on real gut microbiomes, we need to make sure it works! We'll start by testing it on bacteria we already understand well. We will compare the results our method gives us with existing information from other studies that looked at single bacteria RNA molecules or how well we are in reconstructing known bacterial genomes. Once we're confident our tool is accurate, we will use it to study the gut microbiome We're particularly interested in how these bacteria changes in shifts of Western diet. Currently, there is a worldwide rise in the popularity of the so-called Western diet, which is a high-fat diet high in saturated fatty acids of animal origin, simple sugars and salt. The consequence of consuming a Westerntype diet is a sharp increase in obesity and its consequences known as metabolic syndrome. The goal of the project is to demonstrate that changing dietary habits by partially replacing animal fats with various vegetable oils in a Western-type diet can be beneficiary for maintaining the healthy microbiome and to understand the microbiome dynamics at longitudinal studies. In addition, we will develop a new computational workflow for preprocessing and analysis of raw data generated in the project. The focus will be put on annotation, reconstruction, identification of the genome and characterization of cell states for each bacterial species. In addition, we will leverage a deep learning approach a powerful artificial intelligence technique to analyze the complex interactions between the products of bacteria's genes. This will help us understand the biological pathways active within each single cell, essentially figuring out what overall processes are happening inside each bacterium. The method will be validated extensively in multiple experiments on model bacteria.

Key responsibilities include:

- Building a deep learning method for predicting activities of biological pathways from multimodal single-cell datasets;
- Designing and executing data analysis strategies for single-cell datasets;
- Data management and maintenance of computational infrastructure;
- Preparing and writing scientific papers for leading journals;
- Interpreting results from single-cell experiments.

Typ konkursu NCN: OPUS – NZ
Termin składania ofert: 4 maja 2026, 12:00
Forma składania ofert: email
Warunki zatrudnienia:

• Type of contract: temporary
• Status: full-time employment
• Hours Per Week: 40
Salary/month: Around 11000 PLN gross
Position starts on: 20.05.2026
Planned period of contract: 4 years

Dodatkowe informacje:

We offer:

We offer a post-doctoral position (full-time employment) in the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS with a gross salary of Around 11000 PLN gross
per month financed from the NCN OPUS 28.
100% of the work time of Postdoc will be devoted to the realization of the proposed project. The offer is for 6 months with possible extension.
Career development prospects at IPC PAS:
The successful candidate will be eligible for all programs at the IPC PAS, including the IPC PAS Young Scientists competition and the IPC PAS Young Scientists Mobility competition.
Institute provides an opportunity to participate in ERASMUS+ programme.

Recruitment procedure:

· The application deadline is on the 4.05.2026, 12:00 noon
Applications should be sent to rekrutacja@ichf.edu.pl.
IMPORTANT! email subject: “Recruitment no 18/2026 ” (emails without this number will not be considered)

• Top candidates can be invited for an online or in-person interview (6-8.05.2026). We reserve the right to contact and reply to only selected candidates.

• The position will be offered to the person with the highest evaluation by the Recruitment Committee.

• The results of the recruitment are planned to be announced on the 15.05.2026.

• Employment will take place in accordance with the provisions of the competition documentation of the National Science Center (NSC) for the OPUS 28 and Employment policy of the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS https://ichf.edu.pl/files/csr/ipc-procedures.pdf .

• The incomplete applications may not be considered
• The results of the competition are made public.
• Candidates who have been issued a negative opinion by the Competition Committee or candidates not selected for employment have the right to appeal against the results of the evaluation. The appeal shall be lodged with the Director of the Institute within 7 days from the date of receipt of the appropriate information. The decision of the Director of the Institute shall be final.

Appeals should be sent to the following email address: dzgran@ichf.edu.pl.

•If the top candidate does not sign the contract due to the resignation, we reserve the right to choose the next candidate from the ranking list.

Key assessment criteria:
The Commission will take into account the following criteria and evaluate applications on a point scale:
· Competence for specific tasks in a research project;
· Previous scientific achievements (publication record);
· Candidate’s own initiative in research projects.

Required documents :
-scientific curriculum vitae, including a list of scientific achievements (scholarships, publications, patents, conference presentations, etc.);
· motivation letter;
· a scan of the PhD diploma or other document confirming PhD degree

Deadline for the settlement of the competition:

Planned date: 15.05.2026.

By submitting the application you consent to the processing of your personal data in the recruitment process.
The controller of your personal data is the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences with its registered office in Warsaw, NIP: 5250008755 (the "Institute"). The Institute will process your data for the purpose of carrying out scientific and research activities, providing services and contact with the Institute, on the basis of a contract (in connection with the performance of the contract or in order to take action on your request before the contract is concluded – Article 6, paragraph 1, letter b) of GDPR), the legitimate interest of the Institute (Article 6, paragraph 1, letter f) of the GDPR) and legal provisions (Article 6, paragraph 1, letter c) of the GDPR) - depending on the circumstances.

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Data dodania ogłoszenia: 2026-04-17 10:38:07