Within the ERC project CONSYN “Contextualizing Biomolecular Circuits Models for Synthetic Biology” the Koeppl Lab at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany invites applications for
4 PhD positions (E13 TV-H) initially limited for 3 years, starting as soon as possible. CONSYN aims to provide a computer-aided design and analysis framework for synthetic biology. Key problems involve model calibration, model reduction and the composition of elementary models into novel biomolecular circuits. Considered models are mostly Markov and semi-Markov processes. Calibration requires the development of domain-specific machine learning methods to infer latent molecular states, to learn parameters and to discriminate model structures mainly based on time-lapsed single-cell microscopy data. Contextualizing circuit models to the molecular environment leads to large state-spaces and reduction techniques from the domain non-equilibrium statistical physics will be adapted and ultimately combined with the developed inference algorithms. Active learning/optimal experimental design problems will be addressed in order to minimize the experimental efforts for the characterization of novel synthetic circuits and for the screening of large panels of circuit variants. The Koeppl lab maintains its own experimental facilities and can generate dedicated data on large scale due to the use of custom-made parallelized microfluidic systems. The composition of stochastic models of elementary parts into larger circuit models raises several questions such as noise propagation across interfaces and we will investigate the use of formal methods for the automatic synthesis of hardware and software to tackle those problems. Engaging into joint theoretical and experimental work within the group is highly encouraged. We also strongly support any collaboration with the ongoing LOEWE Research Cluster CompuGene on synthetic biology (www.compugene.tu-darmstadt.de). Technische Universität Darmstadt provides the environment and support for publishing and presenting original research results at leading international conferences and in scientific journals. The fulfillment of the research and service requirements attached to this employment will equate to the academic requirements for the candidate's doctoral degree. Technische Universität Darmstadt intends to increase the number of female researchers and encourages female candidates to apply. In case of equal qualifications applicants with a degree of disability of 50 or more will be given preference. Wages and salaries are according to the collective agreements on salary scales, which apply to the Technische Universität Darmstadt (TV-TU Darmstadt). Part-time employment is generally possible. Your profile: • Completed studies in physics, mathematics, computer science or engineering • Interesting to work on theoretical/mathematical problems, good programming skills • Appreciation for interdisciplinary work and proactive drive to collaborate with experimental people Contact: Prof. Heinz Koeppl, Rundeturmstrasse 12, 64283 Darmstadt, [email protected] Your application must include • a cover letter explaining succinctly why you are interested in this position and why you believe you are the right candidate • a CV • a list of passed courses and obtained grades • and contact details of at least two references (academic advisors) of yours. Please send your documents as one single PDF file to: [email protected] indicating the application code number within the subject line. Incomplete applications and applications in different file formats will be discarded. Application code: 682-1 Deadline: 23.02.2018 _______________________________________________ uai mailing list [email protected] https://secure.engr.oregonstate.edu/mailman/listinfo/uai
