Job ID: 121915

Ph.D. Studentship in the Gut-brain axis research group at UCC

Position: Ph.D. Student

Deadline: 17 March 2025

Employment Start Date: 15 April 2025

Contract Length: 4 years

City: Cork

Country: Ireland

Institution: University College Cork

Department: Anatomy & Neuroscience

Description:

We are currently recruiting a highly motivated and skilled PhD Student in the Microbiota-Brain-Gut Axis Theme led by Professors John F Cryan and Gerard Clarke, which addresses the communication between the brain and the gut, and how it can be influenced by the gastrointestinal microbiota. Our research program is highly interdisciplinary, integrating in silico approaches to the analysis of metabolomic, microbiome sequencing, and transcriptomic datasets with behavioural and molecular readouts across a variety of preclinical and human studies. The successful candidate will be expected to make an outstanding contribution to the laboratory and to work towards successfully meeting the goals and objectives of associated projects. This position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to groundbreaking research at the intersection of bioinformatics, microbiome science, and neuroscience.

Project Overview:

The successful candidate will develop and implement advanced bioinformatics pipelines to analyse multi-omics data sets (e.g., metagenomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics) related to ongoing microbiota-gut-brain axis research projects within the research group. The project will investigate microbial community dynamics, host-microbial interactions, and the role of microbial by-products in modulating brain function. This research aims to advance our understanding of the gut-brain axis and its implications for neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Design and apply bioinformatics pipelines for high-throughput data analysis.
  • Integrate multi-omics data to identify key microbial and host-interaction pathways.
  • Collaborate with pre-clinical scientists and clinical researchers in a multidisciplinary team.
  • Present findings at national and international conferences and contribute to peer-reviewed publications.

Eligibility Criteria:

We welcome applications from candidates with:

  • A BSc or MSc (preferred) in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Statistics, Data Science, Microbiology, Biology or related disciplines.
  • Proven experience in the analysis of high-throughput data.
  • Programming skills (e.g., Bash, R, Python, or similar). Familiarity with relevant bioinformatics tools for microbiome data analysis is a plus.
  • A keen interest in the microbiota-gut-brain axis and a passion for interdisciplinary research.

Desirable Skills:

  • Self-driven, curious, and eager to learn new skills.
  • Experience with 16s, metagenomics, transcriptomics, or metabolomics data analysis.
  • Experience in developing pipelines for the analysis of the data types mentioned above.
  • Familiarity with accessing public repositories of multi-omics datasets.

What We Offer:

  • Training in advanced bioinformatics methods and access to state-of-the-art computational facilities.
  • A dynamic, collaborative research environment within the APC Microbiome Institute, a world-leading centre for microbiome research.
  • Networking opportunities with international experts in microbiome and neuroscience fields.

How to Apply:

Please submit a single PDF file containing:

  1. A letter of motivation detailing your research interests and suitability for the position.
  2. Your CV, including academic qualifications and research experience.
  3. A summary of any relevant research projects, links to GitHub or publications (if available).

Applications should be sent to cryanlab@ucc.ie by March 17th 2025.