Research possibilities for the SEAS postdoctoral research fellow in fish immunology

This position is connected to the field of fish immunology. Basic and applied knowledge of the immune cells and responses in fish makes the basis for development of immune prophylactic measures such as vaccines and is thus important for improved fish welfare and a sustainable aquaculture. The position is open to an incoming candidate, see mobility rules. The successful candidate will be employed at the Department of biological sciences and included in the research groups on fish immunology and vaccinology, and molecular biology. Information about the supervisor, research group and research possibilities for the fellow is available below. For further details about the research possibilities please contact associate professor Gyri Teien Haugland. 

The supervisor: Haugland has more than 13 years’ experience within this field and focus on host-pathogen interactions and how the innate immune system can shape adaptive immune responses. This is interesting both from basic, applied and evolutionary perspective. Haugland has experience coordinating large research projects such as the LumpfISH-project (https://prosjektbanken.forskningsradet.no/project/FORISS/244148) which included 10 national and international research partners and partners from the aquaculture industry. Haugland has wide supervision experience at both bachelor, master, PhD and post doctor level.

The research group: Haugland’s group has expertise on functional analyses of fish immune cells (using e.g., flow cytometry), host-pathogen interactions, transcriptome-wide analyses of signaling pathways, as well as genomics and comparative/evolutionary studies. The research group is part of the fish immunology group that focus on immunology and vaccinology in various species, primarily on salmon and lumpfish, but also species like cod and wrasse. The research group is also connected to the molecular biology unit at BIO, UiB, and collaborate with Computational Biology Unit (CBU), UiB.

Infrastructure and research environment. BIO is located at Marineholmen, which is a leading marine research cluster where education, research, innovation and business are co-located (Marineholmen - A Marine Powerhouse | Marine | UiB). At the Bergen High-Technology Centre, where BIO is located, is the Industrial- and Aquatic Research Laboratory (ILAB) (https://org.uib.no/ilab/eng_index.html) which has aqua laboratories for keeping healthy fish and fish disease laboratories for conducting challenge trials. BIO has well-equipped laboratories and S-o-t-A instruments. Members of the project group will have access to large experimental laboratories, as well as specialized laboratories when working with proteins, DNA, RNA, bacterial growth, virus propagation, a “clean” cell lab and flow cytometry. In our lab, we have instruments such as flow cytometer, pipetting robot, cell counters and tissue homogenizator, and equipment for sorting cells, as well as qPCR machine etc.

Research topic for the postdoctoral fellow: The fellow will be connected to ongoing research in Haugland’s group focusing of characterization of immune cells and immune responses in salmon and lumpfish. It will be possibilities for both experimental work and genomic/transcriptomic analyses. Infectious diseases are still the main challenges for the aquaculture industry and more knowledge of the immunological responses upon pathogen encounter is highly needed.

Possibilities for collaboration with national/international research environments (e.g., for shorter visits):

• Sissel Jentoft, University of Oslo, Norway
• Jun Zou, Shanghai Ocean University, China
• Giuseppe Scapigliati, Tuscia University, Italy

Possibilities for collaboration with the industry: There will be possibilities to collaborate with the aquaculture industry partners in the SEAS programme.

The full advertisement in Jobbnorge will be available after august 1, 2021. Call deadline is October 31, 2021.