The position is available immediately. The post holder will study metabolic interactions between plants and microbial communities, using modern theoretical and computational approaches. The successful candidate will reconstruct metabolic network from genome sequences and databases and employ flux balance analysis (FBA) and other constraint-based modeling techniques to simulate and predict metabolic fluxes in plants and associated microbes.

The position is offered in the context of the German Excellence Initiative, which promotes outstanding research at German universities. CEPLAS is a joint effort of University of Cologne, HHU Dusseldorf, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research and Forschungszentrum Julich. Researchers of these institutions are pursuing inventive strategies for sustainable plant production.

Job description: The successful candidate will work in the research group Quantitative and Theoretical Biology. In close collaboration with experimental groups in CEPLAS, s/he will reconstruct and develop genome-scale metabolic network models and analyze these models with constraint-based modeling techniques such as flux balance analysis.